Gorilla’s Guides

There’s a report in The Guardian on the UN’s Human Rights Council’s investigation of the unlawful Israeli attack on a flotilla of aid ships in international waters and in particular on the "clearly unlawful" attack on the MV Mavi Marmara and the brutal and disproportionate treatment of the passengers and crew. Here’s a few juicy bits from The Guardian’s report:

The report by three experts appointed by the UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) described the seizure of MV Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel, by Israeli commandos as illegal under international law.

It condemned the treatment of the passengers and crew as brutal and disproportionate. It also said that the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian enclave is illegal because of the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the fourth Geneva convention: wilful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health," the report said.

UN panel accuses Israel of war crimes for ‘unlawful’ assault on Gaza flotilla | World news | The Guardian

Instead of reading what The Guardian has to say about the report I prefer read the report itself . You can get the report here:

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/15session/reports.htm 

58. Given the evidence at the Turkel Committee, it is clear that there was no reasonable suspicion that the Flotilla posed any military risk of itself. As a result, no case could be made to intercept the vessels in the exercise of belligerent rights or Article 51 self-defence. Thus, no case can be made for the legality of the interception and the Mission therefore finds that the interception was illegal.

59. The Mission finds that the policy of blockade or closure regime, including the naval blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza was inflicting isproportionate civilian damage. The Mission considers that the naval blockade was implemented in support of the overall closure regime. As such it was part of a single disproportionate measure of armed conflict and as such cannot itself be found proportionate.

60. Furthermore, the closure regime is considered by the Mission to constitute collective punishment of the people living in the Gaza Strip and thus illegal and contrary to article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

61. The Mission considers that the enforcement of an illegal blockade does not only constitute a violation of the laws of war, but also a violation of the laws of neutrality giving rise to State responsibility.

Source: Report of the international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance

As well as the sections cited above I respectfully draw the readers’ attention to sections Articles 49, 55, 56, 57.

Told you so.

markfromireland

We have a saying in Irak which translates into English as follows:

“Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”.

It means, as you might suspect, that the differences between two people are so small and insignifcant that it is foolish to expect any difference between them either in their opinions or in their actions.

On "Gorilla’s Guides" as part of our masthead we have a quote from an American commander to the New York TImes‘ defense correspondent Michael R. Gordon about Arabs, in this case Iraki Arabs:

"The only thing these sand niggers understand is force and I’m about to introduce them to it."¹

We have it there to remind our readers and ourselves of what American soldiers are like and the values and attitudes of the society in which they grew up that sent them here. The Iraki experience of America, Americans, American "values", American generals, and the troops commanded by those generals is that Americans react with unthinking hysterical indiscriminate violence whenever they meet opposition. And that it does not matter whether that opposition is armed or not. It does not matter who is injured or killed men, women, children, we are all sand niggers and killing sand niggers is a good thing. "The only thing these sand niggers understand is force and I’m about to introduce them to it".

"You have to understand the Arab mind," one company commander told the New York Times, displaying all the self-assurance of Douglas MacArthur discoursing on Orientals in 1945. "The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face." Far from representing the views of a few underlings, such notions penetrated into the upper echelons of the American command. In their book "Cobra II," Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor offer this ugly comment from a senior officer: "The only thing these sand niggers understand is force and I’m about to introduce them to it."

Source: What’s an Iraqi Life Worth? – washingtonpost.com

Some might like to argue that all of that was under the Bush administration but that things are different and better under President Obama. Really? “Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”.

"Actually it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up with you. I like brawling."

Sources: Controversial US general to head Central Command  and Federal Eye – James Mattis: ‘It’s fun to shoot some people’.

That’s the new over-all commander of the American invasion forces in Afghanistan and Irak speaking.

“Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”. He goes on to say this:

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years, because they didn’t wear a veil. You know guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot ‘em."

Sources: Controversial US general to head Central Command  and Federal Eye – James Mattis: ‘It’s fun to shoot some people’.

You can watch and listen to him saying it in the YouTube video below.

“Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis is reflecting the values of the people he serves, their armed forces and their government. The arrogance, the unthinking fear and loathing of Muslims, the immediate resort to violence. And the viciously cynical pretence that the savage use of indiscrimante violence is somehow in aid of human rights or vindicating the rights of women. Go ask the more than one million widows in Irak or the 5 million orphans how America and Americans have vindicated their human rights. Saddam was bad but as an Iraki I can tell you from experience that America and Americans are worse.

If you go and read the comments on the Washington Post article you will find comments such as:

• "This general has the right attitude. Mattis should be running the country, not just Central Command. The US would be better off as a warrior based society.
  Posted by: 1911a1 | July 9, 2010 7:30 AM | Report abuse

  and this

• "Beautiful. I love this guy already. Maybe with him in command we’ll rightly kill all the extremists plus anyone who dares to mess with us. And as this guy understands, anyone who does deserves to die. He’s right – it IS fun to shoot ayholes like these people. Let’s kill those who need to be and be done with it and celebrate our victory as the best country in the world.
  Posted by: mikeinaustintx | July 9, 2010 9:18 AM | Report abuse

  and this

• "The General is right. There are a lot of Afghans that deserve to be shot. I see nothing wrong with his statement at all
  Posted by: dbeins | July 9, 2010 9:59 AM | Report abuse

  or how about this?

• "I am a die hard liberal and I have no problem with the general’s comments. Barbaric men, read muslim, should be treated the same way as they treat their women.
  Posted by: mortified469 | July 9, 2010 11:48 AM | Report abuse

“Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”. When it comes to the American war on Islam there is no difference worth talking about between the Obama administration and the Bush Administration. None. Obama is carrying forward, and expanding, Bush’s war against Muslims. He is a little less vicious, somewhat more efficient, and a lot better at putting a pretty mask on the evil that America does in Muslim lands. “Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”. Both Bush and Obama are commanders in chief of armed forces renowned for their deliberate attacks on civilians as an act of policy approved at the highest levels of their command structure. Human rights? “Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”. Under Obama the torture camp at Bagram has become larger, busier, and worse.

“Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”. There is no difference between an evil American pervert in uniform who admits to enjoying killing human beings and the perverted cowards who slaughtered the Southern tribes and the Kurds for Saddam. There is no difference between this pervert who now is the overall commander for Irak and Afghanistan and who publicly flaunts his enjoyment of violence and of killing human beings and the perverted cowards in the Badr Brigade death squads who gloried in using electric drills on their victims before finally killing them.

“Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”. There is no difference between the (Democrat) Secretary of State who says that 500,000 dead Iraki children is a price she thinks worth paying and the Republican one who describes the children slaughtered by the Israelis in Lebanon as the "birth pangs of a new Middle East".

Ana Iraki – I am Iraki and young though I may be thanks to the American invaders I am no stranger to either to violence or to killing. As I wrote to the American Christian Priest Michael Kinman as part of our continuing if somewhat intermittent dialogue:

My brother you should save your grief in the matter of arms. It is not a question of my taking them up – I have never put them down. Do you think we stopped the death squads from coming into our neighbourhood by nicely asking them to refrain from murdering our neighbours? I can assure you that we were far from gentle with those we discovered bringing bombs into the district. When my comrades and I protected your co-religionists we did not do it by waving olive branches threateningly. – We were somewhat more direct. Would that there were more like us and that we were stronger in the north were that the case your co-religionists in Mosul could walk freely in the city that is their home instead of fleeing in despair.

Sometimes violence is justifiable, sometimes it is right to kill one or more of your fellow human beings. But even when the killing is justified to enjoy it is depraved and disgusting. If you want the perfect example of why as a human being, a Muslim, and an Arab, I find America, its values, its cynicism, its cowardice and its thuggish actions to be depraved disgusting dangerous and evil it is because without exception the commanders of the American armys of invasion and occupation have been commanded by the sort of scum who publicly flaunt their viciousness and their evil:

 "The only thing these sand niggers understand is force and I’m about to introduce them to it.

“Away goes the white dog and now comes the black dog”.

"Actually it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up with you. I like brawling."

With commanders like that it is not surprising that your soldiers behave in the way the do. They are the perfect ambassadors for the society that sent them. Just as the cowards who slaughtered the Turkish peace activists on the flotilla are the perfect representatives of the racist apartheid settler state that America is so fond of.

By appointing a man such as this as overall commander for the American forces of invasion and occupation of both Afghanistan and Irak the Obama administration has proved yet again that the differences between them and the Bush administration that preceded them are so small as to be irrelevant.

Irak is for the Irakis. You Americans are welcome to your racist thugs in uniform and to your perverts in uniform who publicly gloat about what fun it is to kill people. Keep them at home with you in America where they belong. Irak is for the Irakis and because of how Americans have behaved towards my people Americans are not welcome here.

Mohammed Ibn Laith

Al Jazeera have a report on the assassination of Faris Jassim al-Jubouri entitled "Iraq politician shot dead in Mosul" their report is below, from this report and other local reports several things are known:

• The murder was committed by men in army uniform (not in police uniforms as al Jazeera’s report says the difference is important for reasons I’ll explain below).
• The death squad went from house to house in the village claiming to be searching for mortars.
• Several residents said that the men in uniform sounded "strange" – this is a codeword for saying that they spoke Arabic with a non-Arabic accent.
• The account given by the family is different from al Jazeera’s — the family say that the death squad dragged him out of the house and shot him down there.

Al Jazeera’s account makes much of the fact that the victim was a replacement candidate for the Iraqiya list headed by Iyad Allawi, and the claim by two Iraqiya politicians Intisar Allawi and  Maysoun Damlouji  that this is part of an ongoing campaign of murder and intimidation against the Iraqiya list, for reasons I explain below I think al-Jazeera have got their coverage of this murder of a relatively unknown politician wrong:

Based on the evidence available to me there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Iraqiya list politicians and organisers were targeted prior to the election and that the campaign of murder and intimidation to which they have been subjected is continuing. I do not however believe that the murder of  Faris al-Jubouri was part of that campaign:

• The murder was committed by "men in army uniform" not as al-Jazeera’s report has it by men police uniform. The difference is important. It is relatively easy to get army uniforms and relatively difficult to get hold of police uniforms. The army in Mosul consists either of Peshmerga units or of Arab units known to be heavily infiltrated by persons loyal to the Badr brigade and its political sponsors. By contrast the police in that part of Mosul are widely trusted by the populace because they believed to neutral in the performance of their duties. Put plainly that means that they are not politically infiltrated by Kurdish nationalists or by sectarian political parties such as Badr.

  Moreover the identities of the police are known to the local populace a group of men masquerading as police would be quickly unmasked and attacked.

• Most importantly of all there is also the matter of al-Jubouri’s past:

  Faris Jassim al-Jubouri had been an airforce pilot under the Ba’athist government overthrown by the American invaders.
  
  Since the American invasion there has been a long-running death-squad campaign against former armed forces commanders and officers.

• This death squad campaign has in particular targetted former Airforce pilots, especially those who like al-Jubouri flew sorties against the Iranians.

I can understand why Iraqiya list politicians such Intisar Allawi and Maysoun Damlouji, would see al-Jubouri’s murder as part of a campaign against their party. There is no doubt that al-Iraqiya politicians and organisers are being subjected to a campaign of murder and intimidation. Nor is there any doubt in my mind that the current government, which is led by their political enemies, has deliberately ignored their pleas that they be given police protection.

But I do not believe that this particular murder is linked to the political standoff between Dawa and Iraqiya, it is I think, further evidence that the death squad campaign against former army and air force officers has been reignited.

Omar Khdhayyir

There is an awful lot of nonsense being spouted about the legal position of the Israeli commandos, and their commanders, who attacked and killed civilians in a Turkish owned, flagged, and operated, ship in international waters.

Israel should lead investigation into attack on Gaza flotilla, says US | World news | The Guardian:

The United States has blocked demands at the UN security council for an international inquiry into Israel’s assault on the Turkish ship carrying aid to Gaza that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead.

A compromise statement instead calls for an impartial investigation which Washington indicated could be carried out by Israel.

Turkey pressed for the security council to launch an investigation similar to Richard Goldstone’s inquiry into last year’s fighting in Gaza which prompted protests from Israel when it concluded that Israel and Hamas were probably guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ankara wanted the investigation into the raid on the Mavi Marmara to result in the prosecution of officials responsible for the assault and the payment of compensation to the victims.

read in full:

What the above excerpt from the Guardian doesn’t make plain is that the request by Turkey for an international inquiry into Israel’s illegal assault on the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara was in fact an attempt by the Turkish government to cool the situation down. The craven response by the American government led by President Obama will not go either unnoticed or unpunished.

But in hours of diplomatic wrangling, the US blocked the move and instead forced a statement that called for "a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards". The US representative at the security council discussions, Alejandro Wolff, indicated that Washington would be satisfied with Israel investigating itself when he called for it to undertake a credible investigation.

ibid:

In fact the legal position is very straightforward:

The Israeli commandos attacked the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara. That is they attacked a foreign flagged, operated, and owned ship in international waters. This was not an act of piracy and anybody who tries to tell you it was an act of piracy so manifestly hasn’t got the faintest idea what they’re talking about that I suggest you reward their buffoonery by laughing at them.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, called the raid on the Mavi Marmara "tantamount to banditry and piracy; it is murder conducted by a state".

ibid (emphasis added).

Minister Davutoglu is no fool and has very competent advisers at his beck and call. He is also known to choose his words very carefully and with precision. That is why he said that the illegal assault by Israeli commandos on the Turkish flagged, operated, and owned Mavi Marmara in international waters was "tantamount to banditry and piracy; it is murder conducted by a state".

The attack by Israeli forces on a Turkish flagged, operated, and owned ship in international waters carried a military commission — it was ordered by the Israeli government. Because the attack carried a military commission it was an act of illegal warfare.

The fact that the incident took place on the high seas does not, contrary to what the Israelis and their American sponsors led by President Obama would have you believe, mean that international law is the primary law source of relief to be relied upon. Far from it.

The legal position is in fact very clear. It is a well-established principle of International Maritime Law that the applicalble law to be applied to any criminal act that occurs on a ship while on the high seas is that of the flagging country — in this case Turkey. In other words the ship is legally Turkish territory therefore the laws that apply are the laws of the Turkish republic.

The Israelis have placed themselves in the invidious situation of having two equally unpalatable legal remedies being applicable against them:

1. If the Israeli commandos were carrying out an order on behalf of the government of Israel in attacking the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara on the high seas and killing some of its civilian passagers some of whom  also happen to be Turkish citizens then Israel is has placed itself in a position of war with Turkey without having declared war. The deliberate assault on Turkish civilians leading to their deaths is therefore a warcrime and falls within international jurisdiction.
   • Those who ordered the assault.
   • Those who aided and abetted it.
2. The second scenario is that the Israelis will try to pretend that the killings by their soldiers were not authorised Israeli military actions. They could, for instance, try to claim that this was a "rogue" operation. Or they could simply say that the commandos exceeded their orders or they could try saying that the commandos used excessive force. 

   All of these would mean that that applicable law would be Turkish law. That the killings were acts of murder under Turkish criminal jurisdiction.

   In other words if the Israeli  government says it does not consider Israel to be at war with Turkey, then its commandos are liable for prosecution for murder in Turkey under Turkish law. The commandos, those who gave them their orders, and those who aided and abetted them in carrying out those orders could all be the subject of an international arrest warrant issued to all interpol countries by the Turkish authorities.

It is for Turkey to investigate the events – not as the Americans are trying to pretend the Israelis, and the decision on whether or not to prosecute is for the Turkish authorites, not  as the Americans are trying to pretend, the Israelis.

markfromireland

Another "secret" prison has been uncovered in Baghdad (اكتشاف معتقل سرّي جديد في بغداد يحوي 168 سجيناً | Gorilla’s Guides). This one is located in a tunnel near to the Interior ministry. Details are still sketchy what is known is the following:

• The prison is designated "Prison 283".
• It held 168 prisoners. Many of them former air force and the others "from other Arab countries" – no information as to their nationality or nationalities as yet.

The air force aspect and the location are very troubling. During the height of the "war of the death squads" there was a concerted campaign of assassinations against former army officers. This was even more the case for former air force members — in particular pilots who had flown against Iran during the war with Iran. Many pilots were murdered or were "disappeared", consequently many fled the country or went into hiding. The death squads that targeted former air force members were very often "men in police uniforms" or "men in the uniforms of forces loyal to the interior ministry" as the expression at the time had it. At the time the Interior ministry was heavily infriltrated by members of the Badr brigade and other SIIC (SCIRI) linked militias. Should it transpire that this "secret" prison was run by the Interior Ministry it will be difficult to persuade many former resistance fighters that the days of revenge attacks and ethnic cleansing by death squads have not returned.

markfromireland

Seven years after the US invasion of Iraq, violence is still taking the lives of countless Iraqis. Amnesty International’s new report Iraq, Civilians Under Fire exposes the ongoing violence inflicted on minority groups including women, gay men, religious minorities, and human rights activists, journalists and refugees.

Kidnapping, torture and murder are used by militias, terrorist organizations and occasionally the government itself, often with impunity.

Women who are abused are not safe even in the few shelters that exist. Honor killings are rampant and those who perform them are not punished. Forced marriages, forced veiling and rape are common across the country.

Gay men have been living in fear since political and religious leaders started issuing fatwas against them. In Sadr City and Baghdad gay men and men perceived to be gay were kidnapped, tortured and killed in large numbers.

Christian, Yazidi, Sabean-Mandean and other religious communities have been harrassed and brutalized since 2003, their places of worship bombed, their religious leaders systematically killed. Individuals are stopped on the streets by groups of armed men and asked for their identification cards, which indicate their religion. If they belong to the “wrong” religious group, they are shot.

Human rights activists in Iraq who try to protect abused women, gay men or religious minorities are threatened and killed by the same militias, many of which are affiliated with members of the Iraqi parliament. Journalists who speak out against the corruption in the government which has allowed the continued arming of these militias have also been threatened and killed.

With around 2.7 million internally displaced Iraqis, 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries that threaten to send them back, 12,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq and 4,300 Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf, the situation in Iraq is dire.

In the coming weeks Amnesty International will launch actions addressing each of these issues. As a new Iraqi government takes shape in the next months, it’s vital that we let them know that the world is watching and expecting them to take responsibility for the safety and security of all of Iraq’s civilians, regardless of religious affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or belief.

Iraq: Civilians Under Fire | Human Rights Now – Amnesty International USA Blog

Iraq tops for unsolved murders of reporters:

The CPJ’s Impunity Index “calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a country’s population” for the years 2000 through 2009 and ranks them accordingly.

Twelve countries made the list with five or more unsolved cases.

Iraq was number one with 88 unsolved journalist murders, or 2.794 unsolved murders per one million inhabitants.

Read in full:

The Day In Quotes:

1. Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director on the "secret jail" being run by Nouri al-Maliki’s office:

   "The existence of secret jails indicates that military units in Iraq are allowed to commit human rights abuses unchecked,".

   Source:

2. Kamil Amin, spokesman for Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry on the "secret jail" being run by Nouri al-Maliki’s office.
   
   "We found judges and representatives of the public prosecutor installed inside the prison, which means the prison is not a secret one"

   Same source as quote No: 1 above

3. Iyad Allawi on the ruling that Baghdad’s ballots should be recounted:
   
   "The List does not object the judicial authority’s ruling to recount ballots in Baghdad although it does not serve interest of the Iraqi people,"

   Source:

4. Charles Tripp on on Iraq’s political future to David Tresilian:

   "Quite a few of the Iraqis who will come to power are people who are deeply mindful of the role America has played in getting them into power, so the question is will they be able to establish themselves as something other than American puppets, especially if they are competing with others who are saying that they weren’t the ones who were parachuted in on the back of an American invasion."

   Source:

Political Coverage:

Iraqi secular leader says votes recount must be under strict international monitoring | Xinhua

"We respect the latest measures (of appeals panel for manual recount for votes in Baghdad), which must be under international strict monitoring," Allawi told news conference.

However, Allawi warned that such recount should include areas that his bloc submitted complaints about alleged manipulation other than Baghdad, otherwise, his bloc would take decisions which he refused to name.

"If such measures (manual recount) would not cover other areas that we have submitted complaints, the Iraqia bloc would take a decision which I don’t want to disclose now," Allawi said.

Read in full

Vote recount double-bladed sword for Iraq to end political deadlock: by Li Laifang, Jamal Ahmed : Xinhua

BAGHDAD, April 19 (Xinhua) — An Iraqi appeals court in charge of reviewing alleged electoral frauds ordered a manual recount of votes in Baghdad on Monday, raising possibilities of a change in the initial results of the country’s pivotal national poll last month and a delay of government formation.

Iraq’s electoral authorities did not specify the scale of recount in the capital, a key province with the largest share of 70 seats in the new 325-member parliament.

[snip]

In response to fraud allegations, a recount is one of the steps needed to end the political deadlock, as all blocs should accept the final results approved by the country’s Supreme Court.

[snip]

A recount may change the seat ranking of the two leading blocs with just a gap of two seats. And any change in seat numbers is likely to bring about more subsequent political rows.

Thus the bitter fight between Maliki and Allawi will not end soon, as long as both are eyeing the prime minister post and the right to form a coalition government.

[snip]

It may take months for Iraq to have a new government. Allawi has warned that Iraq will see chaos if there is no new government when the U.S. troops in the country are cut down to around 50,000 by the end of August.

Read in full:

Security Coverage:

كونا : Iraq launches operation " Leap of the Lion " to hunt down  Al-Qaeda – Military and Security – 20/04/2010 -الدفاع والأمن:

Operation "Leap of the Lion" still in motion and will continue to hunt down Al-Qaeda elements in Iraq, said the Iraqi government on Tuesday.

Major General Qassem Atta told KUNA that the campaign aimed at dismantling Al-Qaeda operations, saying that such operations, which began in March 11, succeeded in the arrest of several Al-Qaeda leaders.

In accordance to intelligence information and USF-I backup, the operations lead to the capture and death of several Qaeda operatives such as Abu Suhaib, leader of Al-Qaeda in northern Iraq.

The slain terrorist known as Ahmad Al-Obaidi was in charge terrorist operations in Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salahuddin governorates, but the Iraqi forces managed to end his reign of terror, said Attah.

Source:

كونا : Qaeda leader for northern Baghdad operations killed – الدفاع والأمن – 20/04/2010:

The leader of Al-Qaeda terrorist group for operations in areas north of Baghdad Ahmad Al-Obaidi, known as Abu Suhaib, was killed by US forces, a leading Iraqi military commander told KUNA Tuesday.

The source said the militant was killed in an operation separate from the one which led to the killing of Abu Ayoub Al-Masri and Abu Umar Al-Baghdadi, but would not give more details.

The militant was the group’s official responsible for Ninawa, Kirkuk, and Salahiddeen regions.

The official added the son of Al-Baghdadi and the assistant of Al-Masri was killed in the same operation in which the two leaders were killed. Another 16 aides and militants were also arrested, the source said

Source:

Children of Anti-Qaeda Militia Chief Beheaded in Iraq Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English):

TARMIYAH, Iraq (AFP) – Five family members of a local chief of an anti-Qaeda militia were gunned down in their homes in Tarmiyah, north of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, with the children also beheaded, police said.

"The wife, a daughter of 22 and three boys of between 12 and 16 were shot dead, with the assassins also beheading the last three," said Colonel Tawfiq al-Janaabi, police chief of Tarmiyah, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Baghdad.

He said the local chief of the Al-Sahwa militia, identified as Abu Ali, was on duty at a checkpoint at the time of the attack.

Read in full:

Senior police officer killed in Iraqi bomb attacks:

Two people, including a senior police officer, were killed and four others wounded on Tuesday in bomb attacks in Baghdad and Iraq’s western province of Anbar, an Interior Ministry source said.

A roadside bomb struck the convoy of Colonel Raheem Omer, deputy police chief of Anbar province’s Hit city, some 160 km west of Baghdad, killing him, his driver and wounding two policemen, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Read in full:

Soldier Charged in Iraq Slayings Back in Court | 13WMAZ.com | Macon, GA:

A Fort Stewart soldier charged with slaying a superior and a fellow U.S. soldier in Iraq is due back in a military court.

A military judge is scheduled Tuesday to hear defense motions in the case of Army Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich. The judge may also rule on requests from both prosecutors and defense lawyers to delay his court-martial on murder charges.

Read in full:

Economic Coverage:

France24 – China’s CNPC to boost Iraqi oilfield output:

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country’s top oil producer, aims to boost output at a giant Iraqi oilfield by 10 percent this year, a newspaper owned by the company said Tuesday.

CNPC and Britain’s BP in November signed a deal with Iraq to nearly triple production from the current one million barrels a day to 2.85 million barrels at the Rumaila field over the next six to seven years.

The consortium will fully take over work on the oilfield by June 30 and plans to increase its output by 10 percent by the end of this year, said a report by China Petroleum Daily, a newpaper owned by CNPC.

Read in full:

Oil services giant set to tap Iraq:

As energy companies scavenge for hard-to-extract sources in oil sands or deep water, Iraq is one of the last, and least exploited, sources of old-style cheap oil. Assuming Iraq can hit the targets set in last year’s round of oil contracts, the nation will be gushing close to an additional 10 million barrels a day by the end of the decade, according to the Energy Policy Research Foundation.

Even getting half the way to this goal — a more realistic assumption –would eclipse other historic surges in supply, such as those from Russia in the mid-2000s and Mexico in the early 1980s. The stingy fee-per-barrel structure of the contracts oil companies have signed in Iraq means they benefit from volume, not price, giving them a powerful incentive to pump at full speed. And all this is before allowing for new finds, which some geologists believe could more than double Iraqi reserves.

Read in full:

Commentary and Analysis

IRAQ: Imam Assassination Sparks Fears of Violence – By Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail – IPS ipsnews.net:

BAGHDAD, Apr 20, 2010 (IPS) – The assassination of Sheikh Ghazi Jabouri, a prominent Sunni Imam in the Al- Adhamiya district of Baghdad, has raised fears of renewed sectarian violence in the wake of the Mar. 7 elections.

Tensions have been reported in the area following the assassination Wednesday last week. At least two gunmen killed Sheikh Jabouri, 42, as he walked home after completing morning prayers at the Rahman Mosque.

His brother Sarmad Faisal Jabouri, like many Iraqis in Adhamiya district, blames the government. "We hold the government fully responsibility for the killing of my brother, because they are supposed to be in control of security at the entrances and exits to the area," Jabouri said.

The attack came on a morning when a high-ranking officer in Iraq’s anti- terrorism police was killed by a bomb planted in his car. The attack also killed two nearby policemen.

The violence comes amidst a wave of increasing attacks across the capital, and amidst political instability in the wake of last month’s elections, that have yet to yield a clear winner.

Read in full: