This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 1

1920 Sir Percy Cox landed in Basra as new British high commissioner of Iraq

            Was told to prepare for Iraqi independence

1922 UK Air Marshall Sir Salmond named military commander in Iraq

1967 Law No. 123 gave Iraqi National Oil Company more power and right to develop

            north Rumaila oil field

1968 Govt and KDP started fighting once again

1972 U.S. opened Interests Section in Baghdad after diplomatic relations were ended in

            1967

1978 Iraq Revolutionary Command Council said it would get Arab League to reject

            Egypt-Israeli peace deal

1980 Iran letter to UN blamed Iraq for war claiming it violated Algiers Treaty Supported

anti-revolutionary groups Gave them weapons and sent agents into Iran for sabotage Expelled 40000 Iraqis Said Tehran not willing to follow UN calls for ceasefire

1980 Iraq retaliated for Iranian bombing of Osirak reactor and Baghdad by bombing

            Hamadan air base

1982 Iranian Op Muslim ibn Aqil Attacked between Qasr e-Shirin and Sumer in center

Goal was to invade Diyala take Baquba and threaten Baghdad 60,000 Iranians vs 36,000 Iraqis Only advanced 6 mi before counterattacked by Iraq forced withdrawal

1983 After international pressure France said it would delay shipping 5 Super Enendard

fighter bombers to Iraq but went ahead secretly

(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 UN inspectors at three sites over last week

2001 Weekly Standard article argued Iraq connected to 9/11 and Saddam had to be

            removed

2001 William Safire OpEd in New York Times claimed Al Qaeda operative was armed by

            Iraq

2002 Head UN inspector Blix met with Iraqi delegation Iraq agreed to UN Res 1284 and

            new unconditional inspections Iraq gave CDs on its nuclear facilities to IAEA

(Musings On Iraq article on UN weapons inspections)

2002 Bush said military option wasn’t first choice with Iraq but disarming country was

2002 Bush and Cheney met with Congressmen to lobby them over Iraq

2002 White House spokesman Fleischer said that assassinating Saddam would be cheaper

            way out of Iraq crisis

2002 Natl Intel Estimate (NIE) on Iraq’s WMD released Said that Iraq had active programs

Deleted qualifications Iraq renewed production of mustard, sarin, cyclosporine, VX Reports Iraq secretly bought chemicals and equipment for limited chemical weapons production Had little info on chemical stockpiles but could be 100-500 metric tons Said all parts of biolgocial weapons program active Had low confidence Iraq would use WMD and no intel that Iraq planning to attack US Speculated that in desperation Iraq might use Al Qaeda for WMD attack on US

2002 State Dept annex to NIE said intel community had no compelling case that Iraq had

            active nuke program Didn’t believe Iraq-Niger uranium story

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

2002 In NIE Air Force intelligence didn’t believe UAVs were for WMD but for

            reconnaissance

2002 In NIE State and Energy Depts disagreed that aluminum tubes were for centrifuges

(Musings On Iraq article on the aluminum tubes story)

2003 CPA Governor of Anbar Mines told Bremer CPA and military should work

            together to create a new Iraqi security force

2004 Start of Battle of Samara to clear city before Jan 2005 elections

2005 Marines launched Op Iron Fist aimed at Qaim border region of Anbar

2006 Health Ministry released partial figures for 1,089 civilian deaths in Aug 06 Passed

            previous high of 1,065 in Jul 06 UN counted 6,559 deaths form July-Aug 06

2006 Natl Sec Adv Hadley ordered drafting of new strategy for Iraq

2006 Report US public and private assessments of Iraq different Pubicly said things

improving Privately talked about violence increasing into 07 Had been getting message Iraq getting worse since 04 and yet had no strategy to win war and being told that was only possible outcome

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

2006 26 workers at a shop kidnapped in Amil neighborhood Police said 50 bodies found

            in Baghdad in 24 hours

2010 National Alliance picked Maliki as its candidate for premier due to Sadr

            switching to back Maliki under Iranian pressure

2014 US sent Apache helicopters to Iraq to protect forces there and later offensive

            ops against IS

2017 Gorran blamed Pres. Barzani for crisis between Irbil and Baghdad saying he ignored

            warnings about referendum

2017 KRG announced Referendum Committee was becoming Kurdistan Region’s

            Supreme Political Council

2017 UN offered to mediate between Baghdad and Irbil over referendum

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