This Day In Iraqi History - Sep 8

1922 Gertrude Bell wrote that while King Feisal was beloved he was also weak and

that was because he was Oriental Was in relation to Feisal’s demand for Iraqi independence which Bell believed was due to Feisal’s nationalist advisers that she saw as troublemakers

(Musings On Iraq book review of Gertrude Bell And Iraq)

1933 King Faisal I died of heart attack in Europe

1969 Bakr govt executed opponents in central Baghdad

1980 Iraq demanded Iran surrender frontier towns that Iraq claimed

1980 2 Iraqi MiGs shot down an Iranian fighter that was shooting at Iraqi tanks along the

            border

1985 Iran attacked Rawandoz Kurdistan with KDP seizing large amount of land

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

1988 US State Dept announced Iraq had used WMD on Kurds Sec of State Shultz said

            relations with US were hurt as a result

(Musings On Iraq article on Anfal campaign)

1994 UK intel report said that it didn’t think Iraq had declared all of its chemical

            weapons programs

1996 KDP objected to Turkey’s plan to create security zone in northern Kurdistan

            against PKK

2002 Day 1 of White House PR campaign about Iraq WMD and nuclear threat

2002 White House told NYTimes Iraq trying to secretly buy materials like aluminum tubes

for its nuclear program Times quoted Iraqi defector saying Iraq renewed WMD program Had large stockpiles 2^nd Iraqi defector said Saddam wanted to restart nuke program Quoted White House official who said sign of Iraq’s nuclear program may be a mushroom cloud

(Musings On Iraq article on the aluminum tubes story)

2002 Rice and Cheney went on TV repeating claim Iraq rebuilding nuke program Used

            aluminum tubes as proof Cheney quoted NY Times article on topic

2002 Rumsfeld Powell Joint Chiefs head Gen Myers all appeared on talk shows

            promoting Iraq as a threat due to WMD and nuke program

2002 1^st time admin officials said proof of Iraq’s nuke program “may be a mushroom

cloud” that would be repeated by others later on Came from Bush speech writer Gerson at White House Iraq Group meeting

2002 Cheney told Meet The Press 9/11 hijacker met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague in

            2001

2002 Clinton OpEd in Observer said Iraq was a threat but didn’t know if it required an

            invasion

2002 Former UN inspector Scott Ritter addressed Iraq’s parliament Said US about to

launch historically mistaken war on Iraq without presenting hard evidence of its claims Ritter said only way for Iraq to avoid war was to allow uninhibited UN inspections

2003 Iraq constitutional commission endorsed general elections for new constitution

2003 Bremer OpEd in Wash Post Iraq had to go through 7 steps taking 2-3 yrs for Iraq

            to regain sovereignty

2003 UK Def Min Hoon said Britain would send 1000 more troops to Iraq to help with

            security

2005 Powell said some US analysts pre-03 knew intelligence on Iraq was bad but didn’t

say anything Said he never saw any evidence linking Iraq to 9/11Said US made mistake of not imposing its will upon Iraq right after invasion

2006 Report US military said sectarian deaths in Baghdad down 52% from July to

            August Did not count victims of car bombs and mortars

2006 Health Min said it was going to build 2 branch morgues in Baghdad to deal with

bodies from civil war Morgue reported 1,536 bodies received in August 2006 Many dead not taken to morgue so only partial count

2006 US military said IEDs four times higher in summer 2006 vs January 2004

2008 Speaker of KRG parliament asked US to promise that weapons sold to Iraq would

not be used against Kurs Claimed Baathism making a comeback within Iraqi govt Said PM Maliki had no right to send ISF into Khanaqin district Diyala Part of Pres Barzani’s dispute with Maliki

(Musings On Iraq article on Kurd-Maliki dispute)

2011 Gunmen killed radio personality Hadi Mahdi after he posted on Facebook that he

            was receiving threats from pro-Maliki loyalists for supporting protests

2014 Haidar al-Abadi became new Iraq premier

View the Iraq History Timelines