This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 15

 

1915 Viceroy of India wrote UK interests were protecting Persian oil concession which meant Basra

vilayet should be controlled by UK while Baghdad vilayet should be ceded by Turkey and given native administration under UK influence

(Musings On Iraq book review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

1935 PM Midfai resigned over tribal revolt in Diwaniya King Ghazi asked Yasin

al-Hashemi to form new govt Hashemi plotted to bring down Midfai 1922-58 were 59 cabinets

(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)

1959 Nasser gave 5^th speech against Iraqi Communists Said party was anti-religious

(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)

1969 Bakr govt sent army brigade to Syria to protect against Israel

1980 Ayatollah Khomeini called on Iraqis to rise up against Saddam

(Musings On Iraq review The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)

1981 Saddam said unless Iran agreed to ceasefire he would aid Iranian opposition groups

1985 Iraq carried out air raid on Tehran Iran fired SCUDs at Baghdad in War of Cities

(Musings On Iraq review Iraqi Mirages, The Dassault Mirage Family In Service With The Iraqi Air Force, 1981-1988)

1985 Iraq launched counterattack against Iran Op Badr Pushed Iranians back across Tigris

1988 Iran seized areas south of Mawat Kurdistan

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

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

1988 First detention center for Kurds displaced during Anfal campaign set up

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Anfal Campaign And The Destruction Of The Kurdish Opposition)

1990 Iraq executed UK Observer journalist Bazoft for reporting on missile programCondemned in West

Saddam believed West plotting against Iraq and Bazoft’s execution would be sign to them to stop Saddam said Bazoft’s death was punishment for PM Thatcher plotting against Iraq

1991 Rebels in Diwanaiya attempted and failed to take Hillah

1991 Saddam declared southern revolt over

1991 Iraqi govt forces began operation to retake Tuz Kharmato from Peshmerga

1991 US met with Iraqis Told them they could not fly planes Objected to Iraqis using

helicopters to put down Shiite uprising Iraq said rebellion led by Iran

1991 US shot down Iraqi fighter after warned it no flights allowed during uprisings

(Musings On Iraq interview with National Univ of Singapore’s Fanar Haddad on the Impact of the 1991 Uprising)

(Musings On Iraq Remembering The 1991 Uprising In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Saddam’s View of Iraq’s 1991 Uprising)

(Musings On Iraq When The US Helped Start A Rebellion In Iraq That It Didn’t Want)

2003 Iraqi state TV said country was on a war footing Baghdad had been divided into four military

districts

2003 Special Republican Guard withdrew $1 bil from Central Bank of Iraq under Uday Hussein to pay

off sheikhs to put down expected rebellions

2003 Iraqi security forces tried to stamp out signs of Kurdish opposition in Kirkuk City

2003 VP Cheney told NBC that UN weapons inspectors had missed Iraq’s nuke program in 1990s and

they weren’t going to do better this time Said Iraq could have a nuclear bomb soon Said Iraqis defying inspections again

(Musings On Iraq Interview With VP Dick Cheney On Weapons Inspections March 2003)

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Created An Iraqi Nuclear Threat In 2002)

(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)

2003 ORHA head Garner told Sec Def Rumsfeld plan was only to dismiss top two officials from each

Iraqi ministry and not carry out any deBaathification policy Rumsfeld okayed plan

(Musings On Iraq review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy

Tragedy)

2003 Sec Def Rumsfeld complained Garner picked non-Pentagon people to run some Iraqi ministries

Wanted them all from Defense

(Musings On Iraq on Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Hard Lessons Chapter 3 The Department of Defense Takes Charge)

(Musings On Iraq review State of Denial, Bush At War, Part III)

2003 CIA gave explosive to Kurdish team which blew up Mosul-Baghdad railway starting covert action

campaign before invasion

2003 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found 51% of Americans believed Saddam involved in 9/11

2004 Bush told Blair Chalabi up to no good using deBaathification committee for his own ends

2005 Mahdi Army attacked college engineering students in Basra for having mixed male-female party in

park Led to protests vs Sadrists

2005 Report leaked that Halliburton overcharged US for fuel imports to Iraq by more than $108 mil

2005 Italy announced it would withdraw its approximate 3,000 troops from Iraq

2005 Ukraine withdrew 130 of its soldiers from Iraq

2006 Iraq Study Group began creating alternative Iraq strategy for Bush admin

2007 Report when White House presented Surge said would be progress on political benchmarks by Mar

07 Was none Cabinet approved draft oil law US officials said they were backing off pushing Maliki govt on changing deBaathification law in fear of backlash

(Musings On Iraq review Surge, My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War)

2009 Report Iraq doesn’t have good investment rules Have to get okays from every ministry

involved in investment and they don’t have same rules Use paper system which means everything goes slowly Investments often get stuck in bureaucracy

2009 Report Kurdish newspaper fined 10 mil dinars for story that Pres Talabani worth $400 mil

Editor fined 3 mil dinars for saying PUK got $30 mil/yr from KRG budget Examples of how politicians use defamation laws to silence critics

2012 One of VP Hashemi’s guards who accused him of terrorism died in custody Authorities

claimed kidney failure but pictures showed torture

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)

(Musings On Iraq Charges Against Iraq’s Vice President, And Why They Matter)

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