This Day In Iraqi History - Aug 3

1954 Nuri al-Said became Iraq’s premier 7^th time Went after opposition parties

1990 Amnesty said Iraqi army had arrested Iraqi exiles in Kuwait

1990 Arab League said it would mediate dispute between Iraq and Kuwait after invasion

1990 2^nd NSC meeting on Kuwait invasion Bush said he agreed with Thatcher that Iraq’s

actions could not stand Bush said regional leaders were just talking about accepting the situation even though didn’t like it NatSecAdv Scowcroft said US wouldn’t accommodate Iraq DefSec Cheney said Iraq was close to Saudi oil fields If didn't seize them would threaten them in future Bush and advisers agreed force might be necessary against Iraq and sanctions would probably fail

1990 Bush ordered CIA to come up with destabilization plan against Saddam

1990 Bush met Saudi Amb to US Bandar and convinced him to support US troops

            being sent to his country

1998 Tariq Aziz met UN inspectors Complained they were focusing upon minor issues  

not important to disarmament Said dragging out process at behest of US Demanded that Iraq be certified WMD free and inspections end Aziz said Iraq had nothing else to declare about its weapons programs Chief UN inspector Butler said Iraq had not provided evidence to prove claim it had declared all of its weapons programs

(Musings On Iraq article on UN weapons inspections)

2004 Sadr ordered his followers to seize Najaf shrine and attack Coalition forces in south

            starting 2^nd Battle of Najaf

2004 Mahdi Army kidnapped 18 police demanding release of their militiamen in return

            for freeing officers

2005 Integrity Commission investigating a number of corrupt deals made by Defense

Ministry under Allawi govt One Defense Ministry deal was with Poland’s Bumar that included helicopters that turned out to be 28 years told Another deal was for ammunition which cost four times more than it was worth

2005 Report Defense Min lacked capacity to pay supply recruit and replace personnel

            and carry out promotions or deliver spare parts

2006 CENTCOM Cmdr Gen Abizaid told Senate Iraq could fall into civil war if

            violence continued

2006 Report outgoing UK Amb to Iraq said Iraq would be unstable for 5-10 yrs Said

Iraq could breakup along ethnosectarian lines Said had to stop Mahdi Army from becoming like Hezbollah

2006 Inter Min Bolani said rogue elements within his ministry Told parliament new  

uniforms and IDs would be made to distinguish between real and fake police Said he would root out corrupt police and those accused of torture and would show results by end of August Inter Min only ordered 25,000 new uniforms for force of 145,000

2006 Report some neighborhoods in Baghdad set up checkpoints and refused to allow

            police in without US troops accompanying them

2006 Report of 14,000 planned reconstruction projects in Iraq more than 500 had not

been started Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said start of US reconstruction effort was confused overwhelming lacked coordination and planning

2014 IS seized Sinjar Zumar Wana in Ninewa Began massacre and enslavement of

            Yazidis

(Musings On Iraq interview with AUIS’s Christine van den Toorn on what happened to Yazidis when IS invaded Sinjar) 

(Musings On Iraq article on how KRG tried to cover up what happened to Yazidis in Ninewa)

(Musings On Iraq interview with journalist Wladimir van Wilgenburg on dispute between KDP Hashd and Yazidis in Sinjar)

2014 IS attacked north into Irbil

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