This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 3 Iraq gained independence from the British

(Britannica)

 

1920 Gertrude Bell called Shiite clergy a group of popes standing in the way of UK plans Claimed

Shiites were problem in Iraq Said Sunnis should rule Iraq because Shiites would impose a religions state That was why Mosul province had to be included in Iraq to add more Sunnis Said that British were looking for Iraqi to be new ruler but couldn’t find one so had to pick a son of the Sharif of Mecca

(Musings On Iraq review The Shi’is Of Iraq)

(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)

(Musings On Iraq review Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)

1932 Iraq gained independence from Britain

(Musings On Iraq review Britain In Iraq, Contriving King and Country)

(Musings On Iraq review Britain’s Informal Empire In The Middle East, A Case Study of Iraq 1929-1941)

1958 Pan-Arabists held protest in front of Arif’s house Said they pledged allegiance to him Some were

hoping he would lead revolt vs Qasim

1968 Soviet Union called for negotiations between Baghdad and Kurdish rebels

1978 Ayatollah Khomeini left Najaf for Paris after Baghdad demanded he reject politics in deal made

with Shah of Iran

1980 Iraq Foreign Minister Hamadi presented Iraq’s case to UN claiming it acted in self-defense in Iran-

Iraq War

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq in Wartime, Soldiering, Martyrdom, and Remembrance)

1980 Khomeini speech said goal of war was to punish the Baath and rejected negotiations to end it

1980 Iraq began bombing Tehran

1982 3^rd attack in Iranian Op Muslim ibn Aqil in Mandali Diyala Was to threaten Baghdad

1982 Sudan said it would send troops to help Iraq 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)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 1: The Battle for Khuzestan, September 1980-May 1982)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 3: Iraq’s Triumph)

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

1988 Report 1975 Iraq contracted US company to build pesticide plant in Samarra Wanted to use it to

work on 4 agents close to nerve gas Company got worried Never finished 1980s WGerman company finished it Produced WMD US believed Iraq wanted WMD to counter Israel

(Musings On Iraq Origins Of Iraq’s WMD Programs)

(Musings On Iraq When The World Remembered It Armed The New Hitler Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Use Of Chemical Weapons In Iran-Iraq War And Their Western Origin)

1989 State Agriculture Commerce Treasury Federal Reserve and other agencies met Discussed

offering $1 bil loan guarantee to Iraq backed by Agriculture credit program Treasury didn’t want to give more financial aid to Iraq Treasury officer said continuing Agriculture Dept’s credit guarantees to Iraq would like taking part in Ponzi scheme Commerce Dept official said US needed to exclude BNL bank from any loan guarantee program with Iraq Officials agreed to give Iraq $400 mil in credits guaranteed by Agriculture Dept

(Musings On Iraq review Spider’s Web, The secret history of how the White House illegally armed Iraq)

1992 SCIRI wrote letter to UN attacking Saddam’s repression in southern Iraq Said Iraqi forces killed

25,000 Shiite women and children in detention camps Moved Shiites from south to North Called for removal of Iraqi army from the south

1994 Iraq Information Min Hammadi said if embargo continued Iraq would have to find new ways

to deal with U.N.

1996 Iraq admitted to UN inspectors that it hid part of its missile program and then secretly destroyed

it in March 92

(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 review The Saddam Tapes)

2002 Bush signed executive order to train 5,000 Iraqi exiles to help with invasion

2002 US planes dropped flyers over Iraq telling them not to fight Americans

2002 Report US used No Fly Zones to practice attacking Iraq

2003 Bush said interim report by Iraq Survey Group justified invasion because found WMD programs

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

(Musings On Iraq How The Administration Reversed Itself On Finding Iraq’s WMD)

(Musings On Iraq review Hoodwinked, The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War)

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

2003 Natl Sec Adv Rice US went to war with Iraq because most likely place terrorists could get WMD

2003 CBS/New York Times poll found 53% of respondents in US thought Iraq war a mistake

2003 Report aluminum tubes 1 of the main arguments US had Iraq restarted nuke program Always

contested Sr White House officials claimed Natl Sec Adv Rice knew about differences over tubes Admin overstated argument for tubes Were for rockets

(Musings On Iraq How A Contested Aluminum Tubes Story Became The Basis For War With Iraq)

2005 Report Saudi Foreign Min Faisal told Council on Foreign Relations that Iran was sending in

people to Iraq and creating militias Said US was handing Iraq over to Iran Interior Min Jabr replied that Faisal was a camel riding Bedouin

(Musings On Iraq review A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, The Saudi Struggle For Iraq)

2006 Natl Sec Adv Hadley asked his deputy Crouch to come up with new strategy for Iraq Wouldn’t be

finished until Dec

(Musings On Iraq review The Strongest Tribe, War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq)

2006 Report Albu Mahal tribe fought Al Qaeda in Iraq in Qaim Anbar

(Musings On Iraq Anbar Before And After The Awakening Pt IX: Sheikh Sabah Aziz Of The Albu Mahal)

(Musings On Iraq Understanding Anbar Before And After The Awakening Part V Sheikh Jassim Mohammed Salah al-Suwaidi And Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Janabi)

(Musings On Iraq How A Change In Perceptions Led To The Anbar Awakening)

2006 Report various Anbar sheikhs Iraqi army general and Association of Muslim Scholars all criticized

the new Awakening Claimed it would only lead to more violence Were just going to kill other Sunnis and were puppets of the US

(Musings On Iraq Spiritual Leader To Iraq’s Insurgency Harith Dhari Dies In Exile)

2006 Interior Min Bolani ordered commander 8^th Natl Police Bgd and unit suspended Officer arrested for

suspected involvement in kidnapping of 26 workers in Amil Baghdad 10/1/06 10 later found dead

2006 US military said 50-70 foreign fighters entered Iraq each month Jan-Sep 06 US-ISF captured 630

foreign fighters Total number of foreign fighters in Iraq est 800-2,000 Most from Saudi Arabia Egypt Syria

(Musings On Iraq The Saudi Role In The Iraqi Insurgency)

2006 Car bomb on Industry Min motorcade in Baghdad killed 14 wounded 75

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

2006 Intl Org for Migration 9,000 people fleeing per week 190,000 displaced in central and southern Iraq

2008 US turned over control of security in Babil to Iraq 12^th of 18^th province to do so

(Musings On Iraq Babil Province Handover To Iraqis)

2008 Dhi Qar Governor said that Tribal Support Councils created by PM Maliki were violation of law

(Musings On Iraq Argument For Maliki Being Iraq’s Next Strongman)

(Musings On Iraq Disputes Over Tribal Support Councils)

(Musings On Iraq Maliki’s Tribal Support Councils Appear To Be Paying Off)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq After America, Strongmen, Sectarians, Resistance)

2008 Report Lvin magazine harassed over reporting about corruption in KRG Editor got threats and didn’t

live at home Reporter shot in Kirkuk Barzani member told paper only write about specific cases that it had docs on

(Musings On Iraq Corruption and Reporting in Kurdistan)

2009 Dep Electricity Min said by 2012 Iraq would have completed power projects and there would be no

more power shortages Didn’t happen

2012 Oil Min wanted to reduce production target Was 12 mil/bar/day by 2017 Now thought of cutting that

in half to 6 mil/bar/day by 2020 Iraq didn’t have infrastructure Had bottlenecks that made 12 mil/bar/day impossible Iraq was producing 3.3 mil/bar/day Iraq wanted to rival Saudi Arabia as largest oil producer in world

2013 ISIS said it would re-occupy territory it lost in past and expand into new ones

2013 20 sahwa units in Salahaddin said they were disbanding due to threats from ISIS

(Musings On Iraq Behind The Revival Of The Islamic State in Iraq, Interview With Naval War College Prof Craig Whiteside)

2013 Exxon announced it was starting drilling in KRG Has 6 blocs 3 were in disputed areas Chevron started

drilling in its 2 blocs Jul

2013 Report Iraq passed Iran in oil production due to sanctions on Tehran Asia bought most Iraqi oil

Problems with infrastructure like pipelines and storage Wanted to reach 12 mil/bar/day in production by 2017 which was impossible given infrastructure Oil companies wanted to lower production targets

2013 Report KDP and PUK accused each other in Kirkuk of corruption and working for Saddam KDP tried

to take advantage of weakness of PUK after Pres Talabani became sick

2013 Report Violence in Iraq increasing by both insurgents and militias Jan-Sep avg 68 car bombings/mo

Attacks across multiple cities every 10 days Early 2011 300 major attacks/mo By 2013 1200 major attacks/mo ISF worked with Asaib Ahl Al-haq and Sadrists to carry out retaliatory attacks in Baghdad Sep 20 Sunnis killed in Basra as payback for insurgent attacks

2013 Report Fake bomb detectors still used in Iraq

2014 IS released video of beheading of UK hostage Alan Henning and threatened to behead US hostage

Peter Kassig

2014 IS took Hit Anbar

2014 Australia authorized air strikes against IS and Special Forces to be sent to Iraq

2014 ISF said it freed Dhuluiya Salahaddin 2^nd time said liberated

2014 Hashd and Peshmerga got into gun battle in Tuz Kharmato Salahaddin 4 wounded After car

bomb Peshmerga stopped Hashd from arresting a man Led to confrontation Were competing for control of dist

2015 PM Abadi said VP Maliki wasted billions of dinars from Dawa buying votes Said leaders

needed to be held accountable

2015 Teachers went on strike in Sulaymaniya city over KRG not paying salaries

2016 US envoy to Iraq McGurk helped negotiate Baghdad-KRG oil deal Allowed for cooperation in

war vs IS KRG was to export 150,000 bar/day for Baghdad and revenues split

2017 Former Iraq President Talabani died

2017 Central Bank of Iraq said it would halt all foreign currency transfers to KRG and stop selling dollars

to four Kurdish banks in retaliation for independence referendum

(Musings On Iraq review The Great Betrayal, How America Abandoned The Kurds And Lost The Middle East)

(Musings On Iraq review Quicksilver War, Syria, Iraq and the Spiral of Conflict)

2017 Parliament said it would not work with 4 telecommunications companies with contracts in KRG 

Threatened to take away immunity for Kurdish MPs that voted in the referendum Kurdish MPs were either blocked or boycotted the parliamentary session

2017 Report Irbil and Baghdad in secret talks to try to defuse tensions after referendum

2017 Turkey offered to mediate between Irbil and Baghdad to end crisis over referendum

2017 Pres Masum’s office announced that Kirkuk Governor Karim would stay in office until his court

challenge over his dismissal was heard

2017 KRG Election Comm rejected Gorran candidate for president saying he missed deadline when he

didn’t

(Musings On Iraq In Face Of Referendum Fallout Kurdish Ruling Parties Decide To Hold Onto Power)

2019 Protests in Baghdad Basra Dhi Qar Maysan Muthanna Najaf Qadisiya Wasit Protests

in Baghdad continued in different neighborhoods and some of the surrounding towns Was sniper fire at protests in Baghdad Hashd accused of driving car into protesters and killing 1 in Baghdad 1 killed in Hilla Govt building in Dhi Qar’s Rifa stormed Plainclothes gunmen said to target protesters in Nasiriya Report 35 killed so far in unrest

(Musings On Iraq 30 Killed In Iraq Protests As PM Abdul Mahdi Again Proves How Ineffective He Is)

(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)

(Musings On Iraq United Nations Faults Iraq For Failing To Protect Protesters)

2019 Iranian Rev Guard Hashd and ISF set up crisis cell in Baghdad to deal with protests Iran

provided intel and communications for Hashd snipers to shoot at protests Included Abu Muhandis Natl Sec Adv Fayad PM Abdul Mahdi’s chief of staff hashd leaders like Qais Khazali

(Musings On Iraq Report On Violence Used Vs Iraq Protests Covers-Up Govt Responsibility)

2019 PM Abdul Mahdi gave televised speech Said he’d only been in office 1 yr so couldn’t expect any

dramatic changes Said he’d given strict orders on use of force and protesters’ were responsible for deaths

2019 Supreme Anti-Corruption Council said it dismissed 1000 govt workers for corruption

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