[CTRL] Iraqi opposition
-Caveat Lector- US falls out with Iraqi opposition http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,899986,00.html America to run country as squabbling parties fail to agree strategy Julian Borger in Washington, Michael Howard and Luke Harding in Irbil, Dan De Luce in Tehran Friday February 21, 2003 The Guardian The Bush administration is on a collision course with its closest allies in the Iraqi opposition over how the country should be run after the fall of Saddam Hussein, compounding the confusion now surrounding Washington's preparations for war. Guardian interviews with four of the seven leading opposition figures have revealed the depth of the rift between Washington and several of the main parties claiming to represent the Iraqi people. The split has overshadowed a much-delayed meeting in Irbil, northern Iraq, now slated for this weekend, which will bring together opposition leaders who have spent much of the past decade at loggerheads. It is hoped that the meeting will forge unity between the disparate groups. But their temporary reconciliation has come too late for the United States, which has given up hope of unifying the Iraqi exiles, and opted to run the country itself in the aftermath of the war. The Bush administration told opposition leaders at a meeting in Ankara earlier this month that it plans to install a transitional military governor and keep much of the existing Iraqi bureaucracy in place. The proposals have opened such a deep gulf between the US and its traditional allies in the Iraqi opposition - particularly the Iraqi National Council headed by Ahmad Chalabi - that a leading INC member has even raised the possibility of a revolt against the American occupation troops after the war is over. The rift has also added to the uncertainty dogging US war plans, already on hold in the absence of an agreement from Turkey to provide bases for a northern front, and in the face of determined opposition in the UN security council. Mr Chalabi is seeking to declare a provisional government when the war starts. The Chalabi plan, which has been seen by the Guardian, envisages the establishment of a leadership council, drawn from the 65 members of a steering committee appointed at an opposition conference in London in December. At the onset of a US invasion, this new body would become a leadership council of the transitional government of Iraq, which would oversee the preparation of a temporary constitution and assign an executive committee head to create the first post-Saddam cabinet. The plan lists the various ministries that would be created but fails to tackle the thorny issue of representation for the country's different ethnic and religious groups. The plan has alienated some of Mr Chalabi's most enthusiastic backers in the Pentagon and in Congress, who fear the announcement of a provisional government made up of exiles would split anti-Saddam sentiment inside Iraq. People in this administration tried very hard to put the [INC-led] opposition into power, said Leith Kubba, a founder member of the INC who is now non-affiliated. But after a total investment of $100m, they are saying look at the money spent and ask what do we have to work with? Is there a coherent front? The answer is no. Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House special envoy and ambassador-at-large for free Iraqis, only agreed to attend this weekend's rebel congress after its Kurdish hosts guaranteed there would be no declaration of a provisional government. The Americans are coming, Hoshyar Zebari, of the Kurdistan Democratic party (KDP), said, suggesting a deal has been done. The Kurds were ambivalent over the INC's plan, seeing the provisional government as a vehicle for Mr Chalabi's ambitions. The trouble is it's all about Ahmad [Chalabi], said one Kurdish official. Who else do you think he has in mind for the head of the executive committee. He knows that if he enters Baghdad without this kind of deal, he'll not have the leverage he craves. There will be so many other exiled Iraqi technocrats returning that he'll just be one of the crowd. Mr Khalilzad's arrival in Irbil has been postponed several times, apparently due to bad weather in Washington, but if and when he finally turns up he is likely to be given a cool reception. The INC is furious with him. The Kurds are anxious over reports that the US has promised Turkey that its troops will have free run in northern Iraq once the war starts. And all sides suspect him of trying to undermine their clout by persuading other opposition leaders, including Ayad Alawi of the Iraqi National Accord, and Sharif Ali, the most prominent monarchist, not to attend. The Guardian has learned that Mr Khalilzad is trying to arrange a rival meeting with 15 Iraqi opposition figures and exiles. Mr Chalabi has so far not been invited, but the meeting is expected to include independents like Adnan Pachachi, an 80-year-old former Iraqi foreign minister now living in Abu Dhabi. Mr Khalilzad has
[CTRL] Iraqi Opposition Exposes Iraqi Homeland Defense Plans
-Caveat Lector- January 24, 2003 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-553590,00.html Documents 'show Saddam's chemical plans' by pa news Iraqi documents obtained by the BBC appear to suggest that Saddam Hussein is preparing to use chemical weapons against Western troops in the event of war, it was reported today. The hand-written Arabic-language notes state that elite units of the Iraqi military have been issued with new chemical warfare suits and supplies of the drug atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve gas. They were passed on to the BBC by opposition group the Iraqi National Coalition, which claims to have received them from serving members of Baghdad's military during secret meetings, the Radio 4 Today programme reported. The documents were brought out of Iraq within the past month have been verified by three different experts, said the programme. They suggest that the chemical suits and anti-nerve gas drugs have been smuggled into Iraq from neighbouring countries. Also included are details of methods for attacking ships in the Gulf region. The documents suggest that the new chemical suits and atropine, which protect against the nerve gases sarin and VX, have been issued to the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard, Saddam's most loyal and feared military units. They also include details of testing of unmanned submarines designed to attack ships in the Gulf and information on fibre- optic radar systems and plans of the layout of presidential palaces. The Secretary General of the Iraqi National Coalition Tawfik al- Yassiri is a former Brigadier-General in the Iraqi army and claims that his organisation has extensive contacts within Saddam's military. He told the Today programme: We received the documents from inside Iraq, passed by people who left Iraq. We have checked the information in other ways. We have members in our organisation in most of the camps and cities in Iraq, from soldiers to generals. Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist from Warwick University, looked at the documents for the programme. He said: The documents that you have supplied me seem to be genuine and they would represent what my best analysis of Iraqi planning would be for the coming conflict. If you look at Iraqi troop deployments, these groups would be the recipients of all that Saddam had, in training and modern weapons and in chemical and biological weapons protection apparatus. Bill Tierney, a former UN weapons inspector, told Today: The key point is that the Republican Guard have been issued this new equipment. During inspections, I have seen their standard decontamination equipment is 1960s Soviet-model and not very good at all. If both these two units have new equipment, then it would indicate that they are prepared to use chemical weapons. The Iraqis' standard chemical weapon is mustard gas, but they were keen on developing VX. The fact that they have imported atropine is an indicator that they are willing to use VX. A former CIA station chief in northern Iraq, Bob Bear, said that if the opposition was receiving information from elite military units, it suggested that Saddam was in danger of mutiny among those closest to him. He told the programme: The Special Republican Guard is controlled by Saddam's family. This means that they really want Saddam to go. If this information is from the Special Republican Guard, then maybe Saddam is closer to the end than we expect. Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article have to stand on their own merits. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many genera- tions. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it. The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sut A HREF=http://www.ctrl.org/;www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be
Re: [CTRL] Iraqi Opposition Exposes Iraqi Homeland Defense Plans
-Caveat Lector- Euphorian wrote: -Caveat Lector- January 24, 2003 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-553590,00.html Documents 'show Saddam's chemical plans' by pa news Iraqi documents obtained by the BBC appear to suggest that Saddam Hussein is preparing to use chemical weapons against Western troops in the event of war, it was reported today. The following newsletter out of the UK has been forwarded to most of the lists I'm on, except this one. The first part of it addresses the issue of this story you've posted. Propaganda on both sides of the Atlantic is flowing fast and furious in the face of the growing opposition to this criminal conspiracy to war. The more the opposition grows, the more outlandish will be the reports of the need to bomb Iraq. It is extremely prudent at this pivotal time to heed the warning notice posted at the beginning of every post to this list - Caveat Lector! Original Message From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: BBC: FALSE NEWS ALERT PRESS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE BBC'S INDEPENDENT EXPERT IS EX CIA STATION CHIEF IN IRAQ From Ian Henshall, publisher 911dossier [EMAIL PROTECTED] Friday 24 January On the influential Today programme the BBC headlined it's 8.00am news bulletin with with the claim to an exclusive story implying that Iraq has chemical weapons, but failed to provide any hard evidence a nd indeed sreriously misled its audience. The news bulletin said that a document, handwritten in arabic, supplied by the partisan Iraqi National Congress (INC) was pronounced as genuine by three independent experts, all unnamed. However, none of these independent experts is a native arab speaker and one is Bob Bear, ex-CIA Station Chief in Iraq. The BBC also admitted to 911dossier that the experts only agreed that the document appears to be genuine. The other experts are Toby Dodge an unknown academic from Warwick University and Bill Tierney, described as a former weapons inspector. It has been accepted that the former weapons inspectors contained several espionage personnel from the UK and the US. The BBC failed to inform listeners that the INC is a pro-Bush setup which has been promised a share of the spoils following a successful conquest of Iraq. Many key INC figures are ex-Saddam henchmen complicit in chemical attacks on Iran sponsored by the US in the 1980's. The conduit for this pro-Blair story Gordon Carrera, described as a senior reporter, admitted some of these facts on the much lower profile 7.00am session of the Today Programme, but the news team ignored this revelation and continued describe the experts as independent an hour later when most listeners were tuned in. The BBC has a pattern of ignoring its own discoveries when they don't fit the Blair line. For instance in the Genoa police attacks the BBC referred to reports of police brutality when in fact their own correspondent had given a graphic eye witness description. After this highly misleading 8.00 headline report, Today failed to interview any anti-war figure for a comment, in flagrant breach of the BBC's legal obligation for impartial and balanced reporting. The vast majority of the UK public opposes an attack outside the UN, recent polls show. Instead they interviewed Richard Perle a long standing lobbyist for radical Zionist groups in support of Ariel Sharon, but failed to mention his background and gave him a soft interview, pushing for an illegal attack on Iraq in defiance of the UN Security Council. The second item on the same bulletin was an unlikely scare story, which claimed that a group of alleged terrorists arrested in Italy was likely to be attacking London because they had a map of London among an unknown number of other documents, including a map of Nato facilities in Italy, with those facilities circled. It was not stated whether the map of London was a tourist AtoZ of London, indeed the the report gave few details of the alleged map which was the lynchpin of the story. The headline news story had another serious flaw. Even if the story is true it assumes that Iraq has no reason to fear a US WMD attack. In fact the US has stated that it is prepared to use WMD's against Iraq and revelations under the US Freedom of Information Act show that the in the 90's the US produced biological weapons in useable amounts in flagrant violation of the biological weapons treaty which the US recently withdrew from. There is considerable evidence to support the Cuban government's claim that Cuba has been attacked by US biological weapons. Moreover the story is inherently implausuble because it is accepted that Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran. If Iraq has continued a secret programme, why does it suddenly need to go out and buy protection suits now, as the INC alleges. Currently the UK establishment is in denial of world opinion on the illegal Iraqi attack plan. The UK corporate media has accepted the Bush/Blair line as fact that the rest of the world will soon
[CTRL] Iraqi Opposition Circulates Plan for Post-Hussein Era By JUDITH MILLER
Title: Iraqi Opposition Circulates Plan for Post-Hussein Era By JUDITH MILLER -Caveat Lector- November 26, 2002 Iraqi Opposition Circulates Plan for Post-Hussein Era By JUDITH MILLER Iraqi opposition figures are circulating a detailed plan for transforming Iraq from a dictatorship into an essentially secular democracy in two to three years if President Saddam Hussein is removed from office. The 98-page report, The Transition to Democracy in Iraq, was hammered out after fierce debate among representatives of a State Department-supported group that consists of Iraqi intellectuals in exile, representatives of human rights groups, other private organizations and representatives of leading Iraqi opposition groups. The document suggests that the groups have been able to compromise over divisive issues like the role of religion and ethnicity in a post-Hussein Iraq. It endorses a set of principles that its authors say enjoys broad support among opposition groups, like democracy, federalism, respect for the rule of law and human rights and a road map for the transition to a government that would begin organizing in exile. Today, a State Department official welcomed what he characterized as the latest draft of the document and endorsed several of its major principles. He cautioned that the administration did not favor the road map that the paper recommended and that it opposed any effort to establish a government in exile that might disenfranchise prospective opponents of Mr. Hussein's government in Iraq. The major authors discussed the paper today at a meeting with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and other White House officials. People at the meeting said Ms. Rice had invited the group back to discuss their ideas further next week. She had previously expressed reservations about establishing a transition government that might rule out internal alternatives to the fractious opposition that has emerged in exile, officials said. The document being circulated is widely expected to be considered next month at a major conference of opposition groups. Deep ideological disputes and mistrust of one another forced opposition leaders to postpone such a meeting, which the Bush administration had intended to be a showcase for an emerging unity among the opponents of President Hussein. It had originally been scheduled for Nov. 22 in Brussels. But opposition leaders said they now expected it to be held on Dec. 10 in London. The paper maps out a process that would culminate in no more than three years in elections in which Iraqis would vote on a Constitution and the structure of a new government, almost certainly without the participation of the current governing party, the Baath party. The report says a transitional government would be responsible for guaranteeing basic human and political rights. Torture would be forbidden, as would arbitrary arrest, detention and exile. All citizens, irrespective of sex, race, religion or ethnicity, would be considered equal. Some issues remain so divisive that the authors chose to offer competing alternative visions or to defer them. Although they recommends that Iraq undergo de-Baathization similar to the de-Nazification of Germany after World War II, the paper also notes that some opposition groups strongly oppose outlawing the Baath party. Similarly, although the authors clearly favor separation of religion and state, they defer the issue of what relationship should exist between the new state and religion, specifically between the government and Islam, to which the overwhelming majority of Iraqis subscribe. The major sticking point with the Bush administration is the two-stage process that the paper endorses. We want an identifiable leadership to come out of this process, a leadership that can become the future leadership of Iraq, said Kanan Makiya, a prominent dissident who was a major author of the paper. Toward that end, the document assigns a pivotal role in establishing the transitional authority to the opposition groups in exile and to the Kurds of northern Iraq. The Kurds are under the protection of an American-imposed no-flight zone. The core of the transitional authority, the paper states, should be drawn from those four million Kurds and the three million Iraqis in exile. The assertion of a lead role for the exiles has been resisted not only by the State Department, but also by some smaller Iraqi groups that fear being marginalized by Ahmad Chalabi, founder of the Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella group in London. Mr. Chalabi has strong support in the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office. Fawzi al-Shemari, a leader of the Washington-based Iraqi Officers Movement, said he opposed some of the paper's radical changes in how Iraq would be governed, as well as designating leaders before an invasion. Democracy in and of itself is not our
[CTRL] Iraqi Opposition
-Caveat Lector- From http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1881000/1881381.stm Some of this is covered in Bob Baer's book *See No Evil*, events that had abortive beginnings about seven years ago. I think a lot of these people have some osrt of obsessive-compulsive disorder, unable to resolve their personal losses during the equally aboritve Gulf War. AER }}}Begin Thursday, 21 March, 2002, 14:57 GMT Who's who in Iraqi opposition Saddam Hussein - can the opposition unseat him? US-led action against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq would likely involve the help of internal and external opponents of the regime. These include semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish groups in the north, Shia Muslim groups in the south, senior army officers who have defected, and the Iraqi National Congress which says it acts as an umbrella for numerous other exiled opposition groups. BBC News Online examines the main players. Click below for details on each group Iraqi National Congress Iraqi National Accord Kurdish groups Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq Iraqi National Congress The Iraqi National Congress is the best known of the exiled Iraqi opposition groups. It was founded in 1992 as an umbrella grouping of mainly Kurdish and Shia opposition members. In its heyday, the INC had a stronghold and small army based in the US-protected Kurdish territory in northern Iraq. It saw itself as a government in waiting and had influential friends in America. Ahmed Chalabi has friends in the US But in 1995, an INC attempt to co-ordinate an offensive against the Iraqi army ended in failure with hundreds of deaths. The group had help from the CIA and American and British aircraft patrolling the 'no-fly' zones set up after the Gulf War. A year and a half later, the INC was routed from northern Iraq after Saddam Hussein's troops overran its base in Arbil. A number of party officials were executed and others - including its head Ahmad Chalabi - fled the country. Mr Chalabi, a Shia Muslim intellectual and scion of a wealth banking family, eventually ended up in American, where he was feted by some US officials. He has strong backing in Congress and parts of the Pentagon. Hoewever, some US politicians favoured supporting other opposition groups such as the exiled defectors from the Iraqi army. Mr Chalabi subscribed to the three-city plan, which called for defectors to capture and numbers of key areas that would isolate and surround the Iraqi president. This plan had little support from Arab governments, which said they would not allow Mr Chalabi to run a liberation army from their soil. In 1998, US President Bill Clinton approved a plan to spend almost $100m to help the Iraqi opposition - principally the INC - to topple Mr Hussein. But only a fraction of the money was ever spent, and the INC suffered leadership problems. Mr Chalabi was accused by some opposition figures of using the INC to further his own ambitions. The INC leader is said to have little grassroot support in Iraq and a number of opposition groups have sought to distance themselves from the INC. (click here to return) Iraqi National Accord The Iraqi National Accord consists mainly of military and security defectors and supports the idea that the US should try to foster a coup from within the Iraqi army. Some estimates put the number of former Iraqi officers living in exile in Europe and America at1,000. It was set up in 1990 by the Iraqi-born Shiite Ayad Alawi. Reports say the group has received financial support from US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Britain. Demonstrations against US strikes are being organised in Baghdad The INA prospects for success were boosted in 1995, when Mr Hussein's son-in-law General Hussein Kamil al-Majid defected to Jordan. He was responsible for helping to build Iraq's arsenal and reported to have provided intelligence about Iraq's evasion of weapons inspections. It appeared that the Iraqi president's grip on his regime was weakening. But the INA suffered a set back a year later when the president's intelligence services were reported to have infiltrated the group's operations. Up to 100 officers inside Iraq were rounded up and some were executed. The INA was one of the opposition groups earmarked for US funding in 1998. (click here to return) Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan The two main Kurdish parties operate in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region (KAR) of northern Iraq. Between them they have about 40,000 troops and constitute the main armed threat to Saddam Hussein. Kurds account for 19% of the Iraqi population Some Americans have suggested recruiting the Kurds and giving them a similar role as the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan - as a bridgehead to toppling the regime. But the Kurds enjoy unprecedented freedom within the KAR, which they may not want to jeopardise. The factions depend on Baghdad for cheap fuel and cream off taxes from the oil smuggling
