 Iraq's leaders promised Sunday to track down those responsible for the war's deadliest attack by insurgents, and urged the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians to stop fanning sectarian violence by arguing with one another. "We promise the great martyrs that we will chase the killers and criminals, the terrorists, Saddamists and Takfiri (Sunni extremists) for viciously trying to divide you," the country's top politicians said in a statement Sunday, referring to the 215 people who died when Sunni insurgents attacked Sadr City, the capital's main Shiite district, on Thursday. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh read the statement on national television as Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sunni Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and Kurdish President Jalal Talabani stood around him. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com
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Editor - 07:57:00 11-26-06
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 Middle East heads commit to truce |
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have said they are committed to a ceasefire agreed for the Gaza Strip, despite Palestinian rockets landing in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said Israel will show "patience and restraint", al1though the rockets were fired from Gaza after the truce began. Mr Olmert said he hoped the ceasefire would also be applied to the West Bank. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said all Palestinian groups had made clear that they stood behind the ceasefire. "Contacts were made with the political leaderships of the factions and there is a reaffirmation of the commitment of what has been agreed to," Reuters news agency quoted Mr Haniya as saying. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered his security forces to enforce the truce. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6185380.stm
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Editor - 07:41:00 11-26-06
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| U.S. Finds Iraq Insurgency Has Funds to Sustain Itself |
The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, connivance by corrupt Islamic charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded. The report, obtained by The New York Times, estimates that groups responsible for many insurgent and terrorist attacks are raising $70 million to $200 million a year from illegal activities. It says $25 million to $100 million of that comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry, aided by “corrupt and complicit” Iraqi officials. As much as $36 million a year comes from ransoms paid for hundreds of kidnap victims, the report says. It estimates that unnamed foreign governments — previously identified by American officials as including France and Italy — paid $30 million in ransom last year....
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/world/middleeast/26insurgency.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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Editor - 00:11:00 11-26-06
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| 'In Saddam's time I never saw a friend killed in front of my eyes. I never saw neighbours driven out of their homes just for their sect. And I never saw entire families being slaughtered and killed' |
Against a backdrop of spiralling violence in Baghdad, The Times persuaded six ordinary Iraqis to visit its bureau to describe their lives. Sunni or Shia, they all had a strikingly similar tale to tell. Saad was a conscript in Saddam’s army when US tanks rolled into Baghdad in April 2003. He deserted, went home and celebrated with his family. “We were dancing. I felt like I was reborn,” he said. He dreamt of getting a job at the airport that might let him travel. Today the eyes of this thin young man brim with tears as he recounts what actually happened. The Americans launched an effort to clear up the rubbish around the capital. Saad risked the charge of collaboration by taking a job as a street cleaner in the Rashid district of west Baghdad for a meagre $5 a day. That was dangerous enough, but the work became even more perilous when insurgents began seeding roads with improvised explosive devices disguised as rubbish. ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2470188,00.html
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Editor - 00:02:00 11-26-06
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| Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former US army general |
Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday.Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods."The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: "Make sure this is accomplished"," she told Saturday's El Pais....
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L25726413.htm
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Editor - 22:39:00 11-25-06
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| US carried out madrasah bombing |
THE bombing of a Pakistani madrasah last month, in which 82 students were killed, was carried out by the United States, a Pakistani official has admitted, writes Christina Lamb. The madrasah in the tribal agency of Bajaur was bombed during a visit to Pakistan by the Prince of Wales amid allegations that it was being used to train suicide bombers. “We thought it would be less damaging if we said we did it rather than the US,” said a key aide to President Pervez Musharraf. “But there was a lot of collateral damage and we’ve requested the Americans not to do it again.” The Americans are believed to have attacked after a tip-off that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy leader of Al-Qaeda, was present. Local people claimed the victims included boys as young as 12 and that the tribal area had been negotiating with the Pakistan government for a peace deal. ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2471863,00.html
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Editor - 22:16:00 11-25-06
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