Feature Archives

9/12/2005: The final text of the Iraqi constitution has still not been worked out, and so the United Nations cannot begin to print it in several million copies so that Iraqi voters can read it before the October 15 referendum. It is going to be very difficult to get the printing and distribution done with only a month to go. Read More

8/25/2005: The speaker of Iraq's Parliament announced a one-day extension early Friday in talks on Iraq's new constitution - a fourth attempt to win Sunni Arab approval. But he said that if no agreement is reached, the document would bypass parliament completely and be decided in an Oct. 15 referendum. Even if the Constitution were to pass in Parliament, Sunni leaders have said they will challenge its validity and demand new elections, since a three-day grace period after the Aug 22 deadline was a violation of interim constitution regulations that state the charter should be written by a target date. The draft constitution is also opposed by Shia leader Moqtada Sadr, whose supporters have clashed the with the Badr militia which is closely tied to the ruling SCIRI party. Sadr gets most of his support from poorer sections of the Shia community who may be left out if oil revenues under a federal system remain only in the oil rich provinces. SCIRI is more closely tied to Sistani and the Najaf religious power structure which has a steady stream of revenue resulting from its control over the major Shia holy sites. While Sadr has fought against the US in the past and has made demands for a Shia fundamentalist government, SCIRI is closely tied to the religious leadership in Iran and the US has alleged that it's Badr militia is being armed by the Iranians.
Iraq Constitution: Indefinite deadlines | US sends more combat troops to Iraq ahead of referendum | Al-Sadr allies suspend role in government to protest attack on their office in Najaf | Shia clash dents Iraq charter hopes

8/22/2005: Iraq's parliament received a draft of the country's constitution less than five minutes before a midnight deadline on Monday, but there was no vote and Iraqi negotiators have been given three more days to reach agreement. The draft proposed a federal system and seems to have the backing of the major Shia and Kurdish groups but has been objected to by many Sunnis who fear that it could result in the a divided country with Shia fundamentalists ruling the South and Kurdish nationalists ruling the North. Read More | Partial text of draft Iraqi constitution | The Iraqi Constitution and the Dialogue of the Deaf | The 'new constitution' in Iraq is illegal | Draft Constitution May Strip Iraqi Women of Basic Human Rights | Juan Cole: Unfinished Constitution Presented

8/16/2005: After six weeks of negotiations and intense pressure from Washington, the Iraqi political factions supporting the US occupation of Iraq failed to agree on the wording of a new constitution by the August 15 deadline set down by the Bush administration. At 20 minutes to midnight, the parliament voted instead to give the committee drawing up the document until August 22 to finalise a draft. The issue of federalism, which has been espoused by Kurds to grant their Kurdistan region autonomy, is one of the main sticking points delaying the drafting of a new constitution. Kurdish leaders are adamant that Kirkuk be included in their territory and have called for a referendum. Shiites and Sunnis, who respectively make up for 63 and 35 percent of Iraq's population, feel threatened by federalism as they fear they might lose to the Kurds the oil rich Kurdistan.
Raed Jarrar: The Iraqi Constitution | Juan Cole: One-Week Postponement | Kurds Should Get Prepared For Secession From Iraq | Sistani Against Kirkuk's Inclution In Kurdistan

8/9/2005: The US is pressuring Iraq to come up with a Constitution by August 15th. The framers of Iraq's constitution appear likely to enshrine Islam as the main basis of law in the country and many Iraqis fear this will mean a more fundamentalist regime.
Continuing disagreements and a sandstorm that has prevented travel may delay the Consititution beyond August 15th. Kurdish groups are demanding the inclusion of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the Kurdistan confederation, the recognition of provinces' right to form confederations to deal with the central government in Baghdad, and lack of formal recognition in the constitution of Islamic canon law. Sunni members of the committee drafting Iraq's new constitution have rejected Kurdish demands for a federal state. There is also disagreement on the division of revenue between the federal government and the regions, on whether Kurdish and Arabic should be official languages, and on what to call the country. Read More
At least two unofficial versions of Iraq's draft constitution have been leaked to the press, raising questions as to the direction the future Iraqi state will take -- particularly with regard to the role of religion, the status of clerics, federalism, and women's rights.
Iraqis fail to solve constitution woes | Constitutional concerns | Constitutional Changes in the Iraqi National Assembly | Sunnis on board

As the Iraqi Constitution is being debated, violence and unrest continues. On August 3rd, fourteen US marines and a civilian interpreter were killed when a roadside bomb engulfed their amphibious assault vehicle. On August 7th, hundreds Iraqis demonstrated in front of the Conferences Palace in Baghdad to protest an arrest warrant warrant and 50,000 US dollar bounty on Shiite Muslim cleric Mahmud al-Hassani. Also on the 7th, around 1000 people took to the streets of Samawa to protest poor public services; they were meet with police gunfire that hit at least eight people. On August 8th, the mayor of Baghdad was ousted when 120 gunmen surrounded his office and installed the city's governor in his place.
Security incidents in Iraq, Aug 7 | West turns blind eye as police put Saddam's torturers back to work | US journalist who exposed Shiite death squads murdered in Basra | Unofficial de-Baathification process targets Sunnis in Basra | Bush's Exit Plan: Fomenting War in Iraq

7/16/2005 Every day in Iraq brings dozens of new civilian deaths in attacks carried out by US forces and the Iraqi Resistance. Between January 1st and June 30th of this year, figures from the Ministries of the Interior and the Defense showed 275 Iraqi soldiers and 620 police were killed in bombings, assassinations or armed clashes with insurgents, while the Iraqi Ministry of Health estimates that 1,594 civilians were killed during the same period. Some estimates of civilian casualties since the US invasion started now surpass 128,000.

A look at a few of the attacks in just the past week reveals the extent of Iraq's suffering. On July 10th, ten men suffocated in police custody. Also on July 10th, a car bomb exploded Kirkuk, and there were other bombings in Tal Afar and Baghdad. On July 12th, a bomb at a Sunni mosque killed several and wounded over a dozen in Jalowla near the Iranian border. In Kirkuk, a suicide bomber killed 3 persons and wounded 15. In west Baghdad, guerrillas invaded the offices of a construction company and killed 4 persons, wounding one. The bodies of 11 Sunni men were found on July 12th hours after they were taken by Iraqi security forces in early morning raids. On July 13th, 26 Iraqis, mostly children died in a suicide car bomb attack on US forces that were handing out candy (some Iraqis claim the US troops are using children as shields). Also on the 13th a bomb exploded at a Sunni mosque in eastern Iraq, killing two people and wounding 16. On July 15th, there were 10 suicide bombings in Baghdad alone, killing several dozen people. On July 16th almost 60 people were killed in suicide bombing near a Shia mosque.

While the United States still has over one-hundred-thousand troops in Iraq, splits between the Iraqi government and the US are starting to emerge. One of the clearest signs of this split is the growing closeness between Jaafari and the government of Iran. Jaafari has apologized to Iran for the Iran-Iraq war and there are signs that Iran may become involved in training Iraq's armed forces.

Corruption threatens to leave Iraq with a 'ghost army' | Khalid Jarrar Arrested | An Iraqi Reflects On American Materialism | Repackaging the occupation

The Istanbul session of the The World Tribunal On Iraq is being held from June 23rd through the 27th and consists hearings investigating various issues related to the war on Iraq, such as the legality of the war, the role of the United Nations, war crimes, the role of the media, as well as the destruction of the cultural sites and the environment. The session in Istanbul is the culminating session of commissions of inquiry and hearings held around the world over the past two years.
Enemy Combatant Radio will be providing an audio stream of the sessions live between 11pm-8:30am PST.
There is also a live video stream of the Tribunal | Watch WTI teaser Video.

On May 11th at least 81 Iraqis were killed and more than 150 wounded in a series of bomb attacks in northern Iraq and Baghdad. A car bomb killed 38, mostly civilians, and wounded 84 in a busy market area of Tikrit. In Hawijah, northeast of Tikrit, a bomber wearing a belt of explosives struck outside an army recruitment centre, killing 35 and wounding 33. In Baghdad, at least three people were killed and 10 wounded in two separate explosions, one of them outside the Dura police station in the south of the city. In addition, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in an afternoon attack on their convoy in western Baghdad, a police captain was killed by four armed assailants in Baquba, and a man blew himself up as he tried to sabotage an oil pipeline near the oil city of Kirkuk, about 250km north of Baghdad. In Basra, a bomb exploded near a pipeline that supplies gasoline to one of the largest fertilizer factories in the Middle East, killing one employee, wounding more than 20 and starting a fire that heavily damaged the factory.
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Attacks have increased across Iraq since Jaafari announced his Cabinet in late April. On May 2nd, nine car bombs struck Baghdad. On May 5th, twenty-five people were killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad, bringing the number killed in such attacks during the first 5 days of May to over 200. On May 6th, A car bomb ripped through a busy market south of Baghdad and another smashed into a minibus packed with policemen north of the Iraqi capital, in total killing at least 58 people and wounding over 40. On May 7th, two suicide car bombs went off in a central Baghdad square Saturday, killing 22 people, including two Americans. Over the weekend (May 7th and 8th) seven US soldiers were killed in a series of three bomb explosions. On May 10th, the governor of the western province of Anbar was taken hostage as two more car bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing seven and injuring 47.
Bomb found at Sistani's Home : Shiite Tensions Rise over Killings | Baghdad: Protests Follow Student Murder | Blast walls go up against car bombs, Iraq insurgents hit back with bomb belts | A Family In Baghdad: Is this resistance legitimate?

On May 7th the second anti-occupation conference was held in Iraq. Conference participants rejected any talks with the new government unless it clearly seeks a timetable for the withdrawal of the US-led occupation forces. “We want an official and clear timetable for the withdrawal guaranteed by the United Nations and neutral international bodies,” said Harith Al-Dari, the Secretary General of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) and a member of the conference’s secretariat-general. “Only then, we will offer our hands to the government, otherwise we will carry on with our peaceful opposition until we achieve our goal ... The Iraqi people are rejecting the US-led occupation,” stressed the leader of the AMS, the highest Sunni religious authority in Iraq.
The conference, which was hosted by the Bar Association in Baghdad, brought together a many Sunni and Shiite figures along with ambassadors of different Arab countries.
Read More | Sadr, Back Again

5/4/2005 The new Shiite-dominated Iraqi government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is being confronted by insistent US demands that the former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, whom the American military has recruited into Iraq’s internal security forces, keep their positions.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spelt out the US position during a trip to Iraq in early April. Rumsfeld warned Jaafari that any attempt to remove the Baathists would face opposition from Washington. Last week, in welcoming the announcement of Jaafari’s cabinet, President Bush repeated the demand in equally clear terms.
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4/21/2005: In trying to defeat the Iraqi insurgency, the Pentagon has turned to Saddam Hussein’s former henchmen. Under former Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, U.S. officials has installed many of the hated Baathists who tormented Iraq in high-level posts in the interior and defense ministries.
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A report by the Wall Street Journal from Feb. 16 revealed that numerous “pop-up militias” thousands strong are proliferating in Iraq. Not only are many of these shadowy militias linked to Iraqi politicians, but the Pentagon is arming, training and funding them for use in counter-insurgency operations.
Most disturbing, one militia in particular—the “special police commandos”—is being used extensively throughout Iraq and has been singled out by a U.S. general for conducting death squad strikes known as the “Salvador option.” The police commandos also appear to be a reconstituted Hussein security force operating under the same revived government body, the General Security Directorate, that suppressed internal dissent.
Read More In NYC Indymedia's Indypendent | Democracy Now Interview

5/11/2005: "King Abdullah of Jordan has agreed to pardon Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi political leader, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for fraud after his bank collapsed with $300m (£160m) in missing deposits in 1989."

5/8/2005: "The Iraqi parliament has approved appointments for six cabinet vacancies, handing four more positions to the Sunni Arab minority. But the Sunni selected as human rights minister turned down the job, saying he cannot accept a position awarded on sectarian criteria. Less than half of the National Assembly, 112 of the 155 legislators present, approved Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's six nominations on Sunday, including Shia Arab Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum as oil minister and Sunni military man Saadoun al-Duleimi as defence minister."

5/4/2005: Ahmad Chalabi has received a congratulatory call from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about his new Iraqi Cabinet posts. While it was just last year that the US accused Chalabi of spying for Iran, he has remained a favorite of the Defense Department and NeoCons. Following the US invasion, Chalabi was given surviving records from the Iraqi ministry of the interior, which he has apparently used to blackmail politicians who, the documents show, were on Saddam's payroll.

On Wednesday April 27th, Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced he had formed a cabinet. It appears that the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) will get 17 cabinet posts, the Kurds nine (including the Foreign Ministry), Sunni Arabs will get seven, including the Defence Ministry and the Christian and Turkmen minorities will get one ministry each. Sadun al-Dulaymi is slated to become defence minister and Roj Nuri Shaways, Ahmad Chalabi and Saad al-Lahabi will be Jaafari's deputies (Iraqi cabinet list). Chalabi, a man once convicted of embezzling millions from a Jordanian bank, will get the post of Oil Minister on an interim basis.

During arguments over the formation of the new new cabinet, three key Sunni Arab lawmakers resigned from the dominant United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) in protest against the attempt to marginalise Sunni Arabs. They also expressed resentment against what they called foreign interference in ministry-making decisions. While the US had been complaining in public about the time it was taking for the new government to form, the Sadr Movement has charged that Iyad Allawi was attempting to obstruct the formation of a government in order to make them withdraw the names of cabinet ministers who are not liked in Washington. It is reported that when Adil Abdul Mahdi, an Iraqi vice president, was in Washington a few weeks ago he was pressing the White House for permission to give the Ministry of the Interior to the his own SCIRI party. In order to secure the post, he had to give the Americans assurances his party would not adopt policies that contradicted the security plans of the US military in Iraq.

Jafari's Government: The House of Cards | Talabani Fears Baath Military | Al-Ahram: De-nationalising Iraq