This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 5

1914 England and France declared war on Ottoman Empire Would lead Mesopotamia into

WWI

1914 British Gen Delamain head of Indian Expeditionary Force told to protect oil infrastructure and

only take Basra if Ottomans joined WWI

1917 Battle of Tikrit between British and Ottoman forces

1956 Encouraged by Egypt and Syria along with Communists and opposition parties protests strikes

and riots broke out in Baghdad Mosul Najaf over Suez crisis

1958 Arif arrested on charges of attempting to assassinate Gen Qasim in coup

1968 Baath militia fired on Communist strikers at factory outside Baghdad killing 2

1978 Arab League condemned Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel at Baghdad

summit

1981 Iraq offered Muharram ceasefire Iran rejected it

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

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

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

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1997 Iraq blocked US weapons inspectors into facilities in last two days

1998 UN Resolution 1205 condemned Iraq suspending work with weapons inspectors

(Musings On Iraq article on UN weapons inspections)

2000 Syria announced it would re-open pipeline with Iraq once sanctions ended Sign of improved

relations between two

2001 Time magazine OpEd said U.S. should go to war with Iraq because connected to 9/11

2001 State Dept intel agency said looked like Iraq renewed production of chemical weapons

2003 CPA meeting US military said unhappy with deBaathification because driving Iraqis away from

US and free market reforms that were laying off Iraqis that could be recruited into insurgency

2005 US-Iraqi Op Steel Curtain started to clear Qaim Started in Karabila that was cleared in Oct 05

but insurgents moved back in right afterward

2006 Saddam convicted on charges of killing 148 people in Dujail 1982 and sentenced to death

2015 Maliki said people shouldn’t support Abadi’s reforms anymore

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This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 4

1913 Constantinople Protocol set new border between Ottomans and Persia Ottomans kept

Shatt al-Arab waterway

1958 When rumors spread of a coup against Qasim Col Arif returned to Iraq from Germany

1991 Iraqi army blocked all roads into Kurdistan starting economic blockade

1992 Saddam told top Baath officials that election of Pres Clinton might usher in better Iraq-US

relations

1998 NY indictment claimed Al Qaeda-Iraq had agreement not to work vs Saddamand to cooperate

on weapons Indictment based on intel that Al Qaeda and Iraq were working on weapons together in Sudan Charges of Al Qaeda-Iraq cooperation were later dropped in indictment

1998 NSC counterterror dir Clarke sent memo to NalSecAdv Berger saying Iraq WMD experts were

at Sudan factory probably working with Al Qaeda

2003 CPA meeting US military said unhappy with deBaathification because driving Iraqis away from

US and free market reforms that were laying off Iraqis that could be recruited into insurgency

2003 CPA officials suggested Transitional Admin Law as interim constitution to bridge differences

between Bremer and Ayatollah Sistani Sistani wanted Iraqis to elect body to write constitution Bremer wanted indirect method

2003 Iraqi prisoner was hooded placed on box wires attached to him and told he would be

electrocuted by US jailers Abu Ghraib

2003 Report Saddam made various overtures to US before war but ignored by US as fakes or to stall

for time

2017 Rawa in west Anbar freed

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Review Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Role of Military Intelligence Assessments

Review Hooker, Gregory, Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Role of Military Intelligence Assessments, Washington DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2005

Gregory Hooker was an intelligence analyst at the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) who was involved in the planning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom goes through that process and what the Americans got right and wrong. It is a short, concise and very informative book on how civilians at the Pentagon hindered strategizing for the invasion, and how the military failed to prepare for postwar Iraq.

This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 3

1918 British troops took Mosul city from Ottomans after WW1 armistice

(Musings On Iraq article on how Mosul province became part of Iraq)

1920 UK Foreign Office official suggested US Standard Oil be allowed oil rights in Iraq to not allow

Turkish Petroleum Company a monopoly and faster development

1920 Gertrude Bell said Shiites were complaining about not being represented in cabinet but

dismissed them as being mostly Persians

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

1932 Naj Shawkat became premier of Iraq

1955 Pakistan joined Iraq, Turkey, England, Iran security agreement that became anti-communist

Baghdad Pact Egypt’s Nasser opposed Baghdad Pact Started cold war between Nasser and PM Said

1997 Iraq blocked UN inspection at al-Samoud missile range because included Americans

1997 Iraq asked inspectors to suspend two days of U2 overflights claiming they were supplying intel

for planned US air strikes

(Musings On Iraq article on UN weapons inspections)

2002 Observer reported INC’s Chalabi met with oil companies to discuss contracts in post-Saddam

Iraq

2005 Human Rights Report on systematic abuse of prisoners by 82n Airborne Div in Anbar

2005 Report Jan 03 Italian intel agency SISMI told US Iraq-Niger docs were fakes

(Musings On Iraq article on Iraq-Niger uranium story)

2006 Vanity Fair talked with neocon supporters of Iraq who know said war was a failure Richard

Perle formerly of Defense Policy Board said he was shocked by violence in Iraq Said that Bush made wrong decisions because opponents of war within admin Said neocons made no bad decisions because had no authority over Iraq Said Bush ultimately responsible for problems in Iraq Bush speechwriter David Frum said US failing at protecting Iraqis Kenneth Adleman also of Defense Policy Board said Bush national security team incompetent and dysfunctional

2010 KRG issued demonstration law saying protesters had to registers 48 hours before any event

2017 Qaim district in Anbar freed Leaves only small border region under IS control

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October 2018: Islamic State Expanding Operations In Iraq

(Iraqi News)

The Islamic State appeared to enter into a new phase of its rebuilding in October 2018. First, during the winter of 2017 the group’s leadership told its followers to revert to an insurgency because it could no longer take the losses from conventional confrontations with the Iraqi forces and Coalition air strikes. There was then a period of residual violence during this transition until violence finally dipped. In the spring of 2018 incidents levelled off. Since then IS has reconstituted itself in central Iraq, controlling rural areas of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahaddin. Now in the fall two new trends have begun. First, there has been renewed efforts at mass casualty bombings. Second, there are more sophisticated attacks in Anbar and Ninewa, and increased activity in Baghdad.

This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 2

1918 British invaded Ottoman’s Mosul vilayet after WWI armistice

(Musings On Iraq article on how Mosul province became part of Iraq)

1978 Arab summit in Baghdad VP Saddam worked to expel Egypt for Camp David Accord with

Israel Backed by Syria

1978 Pres Bakr told Arab summit Iraq and Syria needed to deal with Camp David Accord as a single

country

1982 Iranian Op Holy Muharram attacked Maysan Iraq withdrew from Iran back into Maysan

1983 Iraq warned merchant ships to avoid northern end of Persian Gulf due to Iran-Iraq War

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

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

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

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

2003 Rumsfeld said both Clinton and Bush administrations believed Iraq had WMD

2003 US Chinook helicopter shot down near Fallujah Killed 13 soldiers Deadliest post-invasion

attack on US up to that point

2003 US Cmdr in Iraq Gen Sanchez said violence in Iraq was strategically insignificant

2004 Association of Muslim Scholars said if Fallujah attacked it would call for national civil

disobedience and boycott of January 2005 elections

2006 Joint Chiefs briefing US Iraq strategy not working US running out of time to change things

Said US not winning in Iraq meant US losing

(Musings On Iraq article on pre-Surge US Iraq strategy)

2015 Parliament voted to support Abadi’s reforms but had to approve his moves

2015 Supreme Court ruled vice presidents could not be dismissed as office was in constitution

overturning Abadi’s move

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This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 1

1940 Report to UK cabinet said PM Gaylani had to be dealt with because of contacts with

Germany and refusal to sever ties with Italy

1940 UK Chiefs of Staff recommended removing Gaylani via diplomatic moves

(Musings On Iraq book review Rashid Ali al-Gailani, The Nationalist Movement in Iraq 1939-1941)

(Musings On Iraq book review Persian Gulf Command, A History of the Second World War In Iran and Iraq)

1956 Iraq filed complaint with England over Suez Crisis and imposed martial law to try to stop

protests

1963 Wandawi head of Baathist National Guard dismissed in fallout between nationalist and

Baathist coup members

1978 Iraq hosted anti-Sadat conference to oppose Egypt-Israel peace treaty

1982 Iranian Op Holy Muharram attacked Maysan Iranians changed strategy from human wave

attacks to infiltration Iranian Rev Guard division and extra battalions snuck through Iraqi lines at border

1983 Sec of State Schultz told Iraq using chemical weapons almost every day in Iran-Iraq War

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

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

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

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1990 Bush authorized offensive planning and preparations for Gulf War

2000 UK intel report said Saddam had no reason to work with UN because felt US would never end

sanctions as long as he was in power

2002 UnderSec State Bolton told conference if Iraq got fissile material it could have a nuclear bomb

in a year

2002 UN Head inspectors Blix and El Baradei visited Bush and Cheney at White House Bush said

inspections had full US backing

2003 UN withdrew most of its staff after Zarqawi bombing

2003 Asst Cmdr 1^st Armored Div Gen Hertling said that the insurgency was faltering

2003 Zarqawi truck bomb hit Italian Carabinieri HQ in Nasiriya killing 14

2003 Bush said former regime members and foreigners behind insurgency but US would not quit

2008 PM Maliki govt took over control of Baghdad Sahwa Said would pay and integrate them Same

time cut paycheck

(Musings On Iraq article on Maliki govt taking over Sahwa)

(Musings On Iraq article on Maliki govt integration of Sahwa)

2008 IOM report Before Feb 06 Samarra bombing 1.2 mil displaced Afterward another 1.5 displaced

(Musings On Iraq article on IOM displacement report)

2013 Iraq said it supported Geneva II meeting to arrange political transition in Syria for Assad to

step down

2016 Mosul entered by Iraqi forces for first time starting with eastern neighborhoods

2017 Pres Barzani stepped down from office he held since 2005

2017 Iraq Joint Ops Command accused Kurds of walking out on talks over borders and border

crossings

View the Iraq History Timelines