Security In Iraq Jul 1-7, 2020

Violence in Iraq has reached a nadir after the Islamic State’s annual Spring offensive. For the fifth week incidents have been in the teens or lower.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 9

1962 Iraqi planes bombed Turkish border post during operation against Kurdish rebels killing 2

Turkish soldiers

1963 Soviet Union accused Arif govt of genocide against Kurds

1973 Another 36 coup plotters tried including Baath Regional Command members Samarriea and Fadil

and given death sentences

1978 Former Prime Minister after 1968 Baath coup Naif shot in London by Iraqi agents on orders

from Saddam

1980 Former Shah generals launched failed coup vs Khomeini Iraq blamed

1982 Pres Rafsanjani said Iran would accept peace if 1975 border treaty retained $100 bil in

reparations Saddam tried as war criminal

1988 Iraq recaptured Penjwin 23 mountain peaks in Mawet area of Kurdistan Pushed towards Iranian

border

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Anthony Tucker-Jones on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Tom Cooper on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)

1990 US Amb to Iraq Glaspie said that US working on releasing 2^nd half of $1 bil loan guarantees to

Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict)

(Musings On Iraq review The United States And Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents)

1996 UN Sec Council asked US for info about Iraq smuggling to get around sanctions

1997 KDP accused PUK of breaking ceasefire attacking its positions with help of PKK

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

(Musings On Iraq review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)

2003 CENTCOM Cmdr Gen Franks told Congress violence in Iraq meant no US troop withdrawal

anytime soon

2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld told Congress Iraq was costing US around $3.9 bil a month

2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld told Congress Iraq war wasn't because new evidence about Iraq’s WMD but

because saw Iraq differently after 9/11

(Musings On Iraq Iraq One Of The Worst Intelligence Failures In US History)

2003 Fmr State Dept Military Intel officer Thielman told Congress US govt misrepresented intel

about Iraq threat

2004 Ex-INC member Zubaidi claimed INC embellished reports of defectors about Iraq’s WMD INC

denied story

2004 Bush said everyone believed Iraq had stocks of WMD and Saddam wanted those WMD

programs

(Musings On Iraq Iraq One Of The Worst Intelligence Failures In US History)

2005 Al Qaeda’s Zawahiri sent Iraq strategy letter to Zarqawi Expel US Declare emirate that would

become caliphate Expand to other nations Told Zarqawi he should include more Iraqis in Al Qaeda in Iraq Warned Zarqawi attacks upon Muslim civilians could cost him hearts and minds and support

(Musings On Iraq interview with former CIA analyst Nada Bakos that tracked Zarqawi)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency)

(Musings On Iraq review The Caliphate At War, Operational Realities and Innovations of the Islamic State)

2006 PM Maliki announced Op Together Forward 2 to try to secure Baghdad again Failed in days

(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)

2006 Militiamen in Jihad Baghdad pulled Sunnis from cars and executed at least 50 in retaliation for

mosque being bombed day before

(Musings On Iraq review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)

2006 Dep PM Zobai accused Defense and Interior Ministries of working with militias to carry out attacks

2006 Article on State Dept report on Interior Min Said corruption human rights abuses sectarian

violence connections to insurgents and militias undermined ministry

(Musings On Iraq interview with Jerry Burke police and Interior Min adviser on how Badr took over Interior Ministry)

2006 US officials said Jadriya prison in Baghdad run by Mahmoud Waeli Badr’s intel head and

renegade faction of Interior Ministry

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

2012 KRG said it would barter oil for refined products with Turkey

2014 Human Rights Watch recorded 61 Sunni civilians killed by Hashd in last month

2018 Protests in 3 parts of Basra and Muthanna demanding better services and jobs from oil companies

Blocked entrances to West Qurna 1 and Rumaila oil fields

(Musings On Iraq Summer Protests In Iraq Turn Deadly In Basra)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Musings On Iraq In The News

Musings On Iraq was cited in "The Failure of Reconstruction in Mosul: Root Causes from 2003 to the Post-ISIS Period" by Zmkan Ali Saleem and Mac Skelton, in "Iraq's Political Marketplace at the Subnational Level: The Struggle for Power in Three Provinces" by Mac Skelton and Zmkan Ali Saleem for the London School of Economics and Political Science and in "Covid-19, ledijhadisme au defi d'une pandemie" by the Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique. I was quoted by Paul Iddon in "Daesh's reappearance puts fragility of Iraq and Syria in focus" in Arab News. That article was republished in Israel Noticias as "La reaparicion de ISIS pone en evidencia la fragilidad de Raqk y Siria". Was also quoted by Paul Iddon in "Weekend Rockets Part of Iran-backed Pressure Campaign against US troops in Iraq" in Media Line and in "Iraq's enemies fire a warning shot with Hisham al-Hashimi's murder" in the Arab News.

Review Socialist Iraq, A Study in Iraqi Politics Since 1968

Khadduri, Majid, Socialist Iraq, A Study in Iraqi Politics Since 1968, Washington D.C.: The Middle East Institute, 1978

Majid Khadduri was a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He wrote four books about Iraq. This was the third after Independent Iraq: A Study in Iraqi Politics, 1932-1958 and Republican Iraq: A Study in Iraqi Politics Since the Revolution of 1958. All of his books were known for their detailed histories since independence and his access to Iraq’s top officials. Socialist Iraq, A Study in Iraqi Politics Since 1968 for instance was based upon three trips to Iraq in 1974, 1976 and 1977 that included interviews with President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, his lieutenant Saddam Hussein, various ministers and one of the founders of the Baath Party Michel Aflaq. This book and his last one on Iraq, The Gulf War, The Origins and Implications of the Iraq-Iran Conflict, showed a decline in his writing as he became a fan of the Baath. Socialist Iraq for instance took everything Bakr’s government told him at face value, and laid praise upon the president and Saddam Hussein.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 8

1937 Sadabad Pact between Iraq Iran Turkey Afghanistan agreed to borders non-interference regional

security

1973 Police Chief Kazzar and 20 coup plotters executed

1982 Saddam survived assassination attempt in Dujail Saddam ordered town destroyed 1500 residents

arrested 150 executed

1991 Iraq admitted to UN inspectors it had 3 secret programs to enrich uranium to build a nuclear bomb

Before Iraq denied it had any nuclear weapons program

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)

1991 Report During Gulf War Coalition said it was only bombing military targets but destroyed Iraq’s

infrastructure as well During war said hits on infrastructure were accidents or collateral damage Late in war bombed facilities knew Iraq couldn't rebuild on its own to put pressure on military to overthrow Saddam Bombing led to cholera and typhoid outbreak

1995 Ceasefire in Kurdish civil war ended as PUK and KDP went back to fighting over control of Irbil

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

2003 PM Blair told Parliament he believed intelligence that Iraq had WMD

2003 PM Blair said evidence of Iraq-Niger uranium deal was not based upon fake docs but

            separate intel

(Musings On Iraq Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)

2003 White House spokesman said intelligence on Iraq-Niger uranium deal turned out to be inaccurate

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

2003 Wash Post article quoted admin officials saying Iraq-Africa claim shouldn’t have been used in State of

Union and story could be wrong

2003 VP Cheney’s chief of staff Libby met NYTimes’ Miller Said Fmr Amb Wilson’s NY Times OpEd part

of CIA campaign to absolve itself of bad intel on Iraq

2003 Libby told NYTimes’ Miller Fmr Amb Wilson’s report on his trip to Niger never made it out of CIA

and found evidence Iraq did try to buy uranium

2003 Libby told NYTimes’ Miller Natl Intel Est had stronger evidence that Iraq tried to buy uranium from

Africa

2003 Libby told NYTimes’ Miller that Wilson’s wife’s name was Valerie Plame and she worked at

            CIA Miller would later denied she got her name from Libby

2003 Columnist Novak asked DepSecState Armitage why fmr Amb Wilson sent to Niger to look into Iraq

uranium deal Armitage said because his wife worked at CIA

2003 Bush Chief of Staff Rove confirmed to columnist Novak that fmr Amb Wilson’s wife sent him to

Niger

2004 Al Qaeda in Iraq beheaded Bulgarian civilians Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov

2004 US and Iraqi officials said decision to stop 1st Fallujah battle was wrong and city now controlled by

insurgents

2004 US and Iraqi intel reports said Zarqawi using Fallujah as a base

(Musings On Iraq review The Battle for Fallujah, Occupation, Resistance and Stalemate in the War in Iraq)

2005 Iraq constitutional committee started its work

(Musings On Iraq interview with constitutional scholar Zaid al-Ali on Iraq’s constitution)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)

(Musings On Iraq review The Occupation of Iraq, Winning The War, Losing The Peace)

2007 Report Sadr had gone back to Iran after short stay in Iraq in May Sadr fled to Iran in February

believing that US would target him during Surge

2008 Report Al Qaeda sent foreign fighters to Sudan and Somalia rather than Iraq due to downturn in

insurgency

(Musings On Iraq Demise of Al Qaeda In Iraq Update)

2008 Head of Kurdish bloc in parliament Othman said KRG oil deals were illegal 1st Kurdish official

            to criticize deals

2018 2 killed 2 wounded by police firing into protesters demanding jobs, electricity and water in Imam

Sadiq in Basra Security forces claimed armed men fired on them first to excuse them shooting at crowd Were also protests in Basra City Maysan Dhi Qar Muthanna and Wasit over electricity jobs services

(Musings On Iraq Summer Protests In Iraq Turn Deadly In Basra)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Iraq Moves Closer To Compliance With OPEC Quotas But Oil Prices Still Too Low

In June 2020 Iraq had the lowest average oil exports in five years as it attempted to meet its OPEC quota. Prices also rose for the second straight month. That wasn’t enough to meet the country’s budget requirements however.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 7

1921 American consul in Baghdad wrote that Faisal would become King of Iraq even though he was

unpopular in the country

1921 Gertrude Bell noted that Iraqi notables couldn’t wait for election to appoint Faisal King because would

take 2 months and that was too long

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell And Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)

(Musings On Iraq movie review Letters from Baghdad)

1973 Police Chief Kazzar and 20 other coup plotters found guilty and given death sentence

1973 Baath Regional Congress expanded membership to accommodate Saddam supporters

1984 Iraqi govt uncovered plot to assassinate Saddam Executed some 50 army officers as a result

1987 UN Resolution 598 called for ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Anthony Tucker-Jones on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Tom Cooper on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)

1991 Iraq Foreign Min Hussein told UN that it would make a declaration of its nuclear program Said Iraq

had not violated Non-Proliferation Treaty or IAEA safeguards

(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)

1991 Iraq’s concealment committee met Decided to reveal details about nuke program after inspectors

found site Decided to secretly destroy WMD programs and materials to hide them from inspectors Would prove long term problem because Iraq could never fully prove what it destroyed and what it was hiding to inspectors

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In The Eye of the Storm)

1997 Turkey withdrew its forces from Kurdistan after killing over 2,000 PKK fighters

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

2003 CPA suspended Iraq’s old banking laws as part of reform program

2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld told Senate US didn't go to war with Iraq because it had dramatic new

            evidence of its WMD programs

2003 White House admitted Bush’s State of Union claim Iraq tried to buy uranium

            from Africa Shouldn't have been used

2003 VP Cheney’s chief of staff Libby told White House spokesman Fleischer fmr Amb Wilson’s wife sent

him to Niger to investigate Iraq-Niger uranium deal Was attempt to discredit Wilson

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

2003 SCIRI dropped objection to joining Iraqi Governing Council after lobbying by UN

2003 UK parliament’s Foreign Affairs comm report on UK dossier on Iraq’s WMD said was not sexed up by

Blair govt

2003 UK Foreign Affairs comm report said Blair govt didn’t mislead parliament but misstated some of the

intel on Iraq’s WMD

2003 UK Foreign Affairs comm report said claim Iraq could use WMD in 45 min should not have been so

prominent in dossier

2003 UK parliament’s Foreign Affairs comm report said UK dossier on Iraq WMD should’ve been more

qualified on story Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa

(Musings On Iraq Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)

2003 State Dept intel agency sent memo to DepSec State Armitage originally from June that said Iraq-Niger

docs were fakes

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)

2004 US Iraq cmdr Gen Casey told Bush 70% of Fallujah Brigade had joined insurgency

2004 Sen Intel Comm found major judgements in Oct 02 Natl Intel Est on Iraq’s WMD and nuke program

were overstated and generally not supported

(Musings On Iraq Iraq, One Of The Worst Intelligence Failures In US History)

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Created An Iraqi Nuclear Threat In 2002)

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US intel claims Iraq had WMD and programs larger than before Gulf War were

overstated

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US had evidence Iraq buying dual use equipment Uncertain Iraq had destroyed

its WMD stocks after Gulf War

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US intel didn’t have much good info on Iraq’s WMD and nuke programs after

UN inspections ended in 1998

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US intel suffered from group think Assumed Iraq had WMD Assumed

everything it did was to expand those programs

2004 Senate Intel Comm report on pre-war intel found that all of CIA’s claims about Iraq renewed nuke

program were wrong and weak to begin with

2004 Sen Intel Comm found CIA justified to claim Iraq-Al Qaeda might have cooperated based upon pre-

war intel

2005 Iraq and Iran’s Defense Ministries signed military cooperation agreement

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

2005 Report Human Rights Min said Iraqi forces carried out random arrests not using

            warrants torturing and abusing prisoners

2005 Report Human Rights Min official said Iraqi forces conducting extrajudicial

            killings and govt not doing anything about it

2005 Report $8.8 bil went missing in Iraqi ministries during CPA period 03-05

(Musings On Iraq interview with Special Inspector Gen for Iraq Reconstruction Bowen on corruption in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq interview with fmr anti-graft official Vincent Foulk on corruption in Iraq)

2006 Bush said Americans were wondering if US could win Iraq war Said US was winning

(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)

(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)

(Musings On Iraq review What Happened, Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception)

2006 US Iraq cmdr Gen Casey given investigative report on Marines killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha

2006 Integrity Commission head Radi said weak institutions and lack of punishment led

            to uncontrolled corruption

2008 PM Maliki said he wanted a memo of understanding on withdrawal of US forces

            instead of a Status of Forces Agreement which was stalled

(Musings On Iraq Iraq Asks US To Draw Up Withdrawal Plans: Move Towards Autonomy, Electioneering, Or Brinkmanship by the Maliki Government?)

2008 Female suicide bomber hit market in Baquba 23rd female suicide bombing of the year

(Musings On Iraq The Rise of Female Suicide Bombers)

2008 Report 94% decline in attacks by ISI 25 in Nov 07 vs 334 Nov 06

2013 KRG Pres Barzani visited Baghdad to try to resolve problems with PM Maliki

2017 Protesters seized power plant in Babil due to electricity shortages

2018 Protest in Imam Sadiq Basra blocked main road over electricity shortages

(Musings On Iraq Summer Protests In Iraq Turn Deadly In Basra)

View the Iraq History Timelines