This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 3

 

1914 Start of Battle of Qurna between British and Ottoman British attacked but beaten back

1967 Arif govt issued new press law restricting freedom of the media to try to control

opposition to govt Shut down all private newspapers and replaced them with 5 govt ones

1996 Iran admitted to Iraq smuggling oil through its territory violating UN sanctions and promised

action against it

1999 UN Res 1280 extended Oil for Food program

2001 PM Blair told Bush he was not opposed to removing Saddam

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Sec 3.1 Development of UK Strategy and Options on Iraq, 9/11 to Early January 2002)

2002 Iraq officials cooperated with UN inspectors at surprise search of one of Saddam’s Baghdad

palaces

(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)

2004 3 members of Ansar al-Islam arrested for planning to assassinate PM Allawi

2004 Bush called speech writer Gerson saying he wanted to change US foreign policy to promoting

democracy Iraq at forefront

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Future The aftermath of regime change)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Dysfunctional Democracy)

(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)

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

2006 Bush said that withdrawing from Iraq was not realistic National Sec Adv Hadley on NBC said

that withdrawing was the same as cutting and running and the president rejected that US strategy at the time was to train Iraqi forces to take over security and withdraw Showed disconnect between strategy and how Bush envisioned war

(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)

(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)

2006 Report Def Sec Rumsfeld memo said US strategy in Iraq not working and needed new one Said

administration had to lower public expectations of what US could do in Iraq Was frustrated with Iraqis Said Iraq needed to do more Laid out plans for either withdrawing troops or redeploying them within Iraq Said US should think of setting benchmarks for Iraq Went against public statements of US govt against withdrawals and benchmarks

2006 Report doctor at Baghdad hospital said staff had been infiltrated by Mahdi Army Patients were

mysteriously dying and then records lost or changed Thought they were being murdered and orders were coming from Sadr controlled Health Min

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

2007 ISI’s Abu Omar al-Baghdadi issued tape announcing campaign against Awakening

(Musings On Iraq review The Caliphate At War, Operational Realities and Innovations of the Islamic State)

(Musings On Iraq review Illusions of Victory, The Anbar Awakening And The Rise Of The Islamic State)

2008 Presidential Council passed Status of Forces Agreement with US setting withdrawal date for

US forces 12/31/11

2008 Baghdad-Irbil oil talks broke down KRG refused to cancel its oil contracts and demanded share

of oil revenues Oil Min Shahristani refused

(Musings On Iraq Baghdad-Kurdish Oil Export Deal Collapses)

2008 Report Maliki govt stopped officially releasing casualty figures in January 07 because made it look

bad January 07 UN reported 34,452 Iraqis killed in 06 Govt said only 12,357 deaths

2011 PM Maliki accused Turkey of meddling in Iraqi affairs as relations deteriorate between two

View the Iraq History Timelines