This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 13 Sec State Powell told Bush if he invaded Iraq would have to run the country

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1916 British attacked Ottomans at Wadi River but stopped 1,613 British casualties 2,000

Turkish ones Ottomans retreated next day

1968 6 ministers from Pres Arif’s govt resigned after anti-govt protests demanded return to

democracy

1972 Bakr govt said it would take power away from Iraq Petroleum Company

1983 Report China was supplying both Iraq and Iran with weapons during Iran-Iraq War

1987 Iran Op Karbala 5 Used night attack to advance 2 miles towards Basra city Caused

1000 Iraqi casualties Iran accused Iraq of using poison gas to repulse attack Iranian casualties so high called for volunteers

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

1987 Iran started Op Karbala 6 in Qasr-e-Shirin central Iran to divert Iraqi forces from Basra

Goal was to seize Mandali Diyala Freed 100 sq mi of Iranian land

1988 Iran Op Zafar 5 KDP and Iranian forces attacked behind Iraqi lines in Kirkuk

(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)

1991 UN Sec Gen deCuellar went to Baghdad to try to avert Gulf War

1993 US UK and France carried out air and missile strikes on Iraq for not cooperating with

UN inspectors

(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)

1994 US UK French planes bombed Amara Basra Najaf Samawa Talil to knock out air

defense systems and telecommunications Missed ½ the targets 19 killed

1998 Iraqis objected to UN inspectors having too many Americans and British and refused

cooperation until team changed

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In The Eye of the Storm)

(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)

(Musings On Iraq review Neighbors, Not Friends, Iraq And Iran After The Gulf Wars)

(Musings On Iraq review The Greatest Threat, Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, And The Growing Crisis Of Global Security)

2003 Bush met Saudi Amb Bandar Gave assurance that US would remove Saddam

2003 Bush told Sec State Powell he’d decided on war and needed his support Powell said he

would back president Powell reminded Bush that if US invaded Iraq it would have to run the country

(Musings On Iraq review Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq)

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

Policy Tragedy)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict)

2003 Sec State Powell decided he had to play out diplomacy with Iraq at UN despite Bush’s

decision to go to war

2003 NSA Dir Adm Hayden ordered decentralization of intel so that it could be distributed

to combat units during Iraq invasion

2003 PM Blair TV speech said Iraq could give WMD to terrorists and US and UK could act

against Iraq without 2^nd UN resolution

2003 Attny Gen Lord Goldsmith told PM Blair and Foreign Sec Straw that there needed to be

a 2^nd UN resolution against Iraq to go to war

(Musings On Iraq Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Inquiry Section 3.7 Development of UK Strategy and Options, 1 February to 7 March 2003)

2003 State Dept intel analyst told other analysts Iraq-Niger uranium docs were probably fake

2 CIA analysts said they saw problems with docs but didn’t think they were fakes They were fake

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The WMD Mirage, Iraq’s Decade of Deception and America’s False Premise for War)

2003 UnderSecDef Feith called ex-Gen Jay Garner to run postwar Iraq and he accepted 2

months before invasion

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

(Musings On Iraq review Hard Lessons, The Iraq Reconstruction Experience)

2003 IAEA head El Baradei said inspectors needed a few months to finish work in Iraq

2003 Natl Sec Adv Rice met with adv to French Pres Chirac and French Amb to US French warned of

instability that could happen after US invasion of Iraq Rice objected to everything French said Rice said there were already terrorists in Arab world and Arabs wouldn’t reject invasion Said Arab leaders would back US

2004 US soldier in 800^th Military Police reported abuse by his unit at Abu Ghraib prison and

handed over photos

2004 CPA meeting decided it had to push forward with its sovereignty transition plan despite

Ayatollah Sistani’s objections Bremer sent note to Sistani that early elections not possible

(Musings On Iraq US Army History Of Iraq War Vol 1- Chapter 11 The Gathering Storm)

(Musings On Iraq review The Occupation of Iraq, Winning The War, Losing The Peace)

(Musings On Iraq review Patriotic Ayatollahs, Nationalism In Post-Saddam Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Squandered Victory, The American Occupation And the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Dysfunctional Democracy)

2005 Fmr Sec State Baker said US occupation of Iraq undermined US support for war and

made US look imperialist in Middle East

2005 Ayatollah Sistani representative assassinated in Baghdad

2005 US National Intelligence Council Iraq became new terrorist training ground in world

replacing Afghanistan

2006 Report after US forces handed over Saddam palace in Tikrit in Nov 2005 Iraqi forces

and Salahaddin officials looted facilities

2008 Report Baghdad and major cities facing worst electricity crisis since 2003 Turkey cut off natural gas

exports that fueled power stations Turkey and Kuwait also cut electricity exports Insurgents continued to blow up power lines

2008 Sadrists Iraqiya National Dialogue List signed agreement to maintain national control

of Iraq’s oil and oppose independent KRG oil contracts Nothing came of agreement

2008 Report Could’ve been fraud by Iraqi teams that did Lancet II study on Iraqi deaths Lancet authors

didn’t have enough checks to make sure survey teams were not faking info Thought claim majority of people who reported deaths had death certificates might have been case of faked data Analyst went over data and found correlation between when teams forgot to ask for death certificates and certain types of deaths Thought correlation proved teams purposely asked for death certificates sometimes and not in others

(Musings On Iraq Major Flaws With The Lancet Reports On Iraqi Deaths Part I)

(Musings On Iraq Major Flaws With The Lancet Reports On Iraqi Deaths Part II)

(Musings On Iraq New Survey On Estimated Deaths In Iraq Refutes Lancet Reports)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mark Van Der Laan on Lancet Reports)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Michael Spagat on Lancet reports)

2009 Director of Rafidain Bank said if banks sign of economic progress Iraq would be behind Said no

personal accounts no safe deposits no dealings with foreign banks Rafidain tried to set up bank branches in areas where no banks in Iraq

2009 Spec Insp Gen Iraq Recon report Found projects over budget little oversight potential

of projects unfulfilled Warned Iraqis not willing or capable of maintaining many US funded projects KBR worked on $146 mil project to improve gas plants in south Brought rotors for gas compressors but didn’t install them Iraqis had no plans to install rotors Plant working at under capacity as a result Jan 05 Iraq ordered KBR to stop project to improve loading arms at Basra Oil Terminal Didn't want project and didn’t maintain improvements KBR made at facility US built power plant in Baghdad that Iraqis abandoned because turbines broke because Iraqis couldn’t operate them

(Musings On Iraq Iraqis Unwilling Or Incapable Of Maintaining U.S. Reconstruction Projects)

(Musings On Iraq Iraqis Unwilling To Accept Projects Big And Small From the U.S.)

2010 Joint Iraq-Peshmerga-US checkpoints opened in Diyala’s disputed territories to

increase cooperation amongst parties

(Musings On Iraq Joint Iraq-Peshmerga-U.S. Patrols Begin In Disputed Territories)

2010 Dep head of Karbala council claimed Baathists were destabilizing Iraq MP said Baathists in other

countries were trying to disrupt 2010 election Part of push by Shiite parties to make Baathists main issue of 2010 election

(Musings On Iraq Timeline of Iraq’s De-Baathification Campaign)

2010 Oil Min inspector general accused ISF of oil smuggling Found army units involved

Pipelines in Salahaddin and Ninewa being tapped into

2011 Report Wasit rejected Electricity Min’s charging for electricity use Said was too much for poor province

2010 Electricity Min started billing for usage to try to curb consumption Effort failed

2011 Report Iraq’s oil pipelines old and needed repair and expansion Capacity was low Needed to build

storage terminals Ports had to be upgraded Iraq dealing with yrs of neglect of infrastructure Energy analyst said foreign companies had hard time finding skilled workers equipment material in Iraq Iraq didn’t have enough money to fix problems 2010 Oil Min came up with master plan Said it wanted to produce 12 mil/bar/day of oil by 2017 Would add 4 mil/bar/day export capacity by 2013 Would expand export capacity to Turkey to 1.6 mil/bar/day Wanted to build 3^rd pipeline to Syria and Mediterranean 2010 Iraq signed deals with companies to build new pipelines and 4 floating terminals in Basra Iraq short on water to maintain pressure in oil wells Led to declining production Exxon and others worked on water project Floating terminals and pipeline contracts were given due to corruption

2013 PUK announced Sulaymaniya agreement to unite leadership Didn’t work

2013 Report Parliamentary comm investigated corrupt Russian arms deal Office of armed forces Defense Min

PM Maliki’s officer refused to cooperate Defense Min signed Russia deal Financing started with Trade Bank of Iraq Prices for equipment went up 9-30% from start of deal to later on Lebanese middle men involved in deal along with Russian oil company that twice met with Maliki Comm recommended Def Min Dulaimi former govt spokesman Dabbagh Pres Talabani adv Iraqi businessman and 2 Lebanese businessmen be investigated State of Law MP on security committee claimed PM Maliki realized there was corruption in deal and cancelled it Claimed Maliki started own investigation Baghdad was renegotiating deal Sadrist said State of Law MP only wanted to protect Maliki

2014 Tribal Military Council tried to unite all the insurgent groups in Fallujah

(Musings On Iraq How Iraq’s Fallujah Fell To The Islamic State)

(Musings On Iraq Update On Iraq’s Insurgency Interview With Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi)

2016 Report Hashd executed 15 men in Muqdadiya Diyala Told Sunni families they had to leave city or

be killed Blew up another mosque Fmr Diyala gov said dozens of civilians killed Hashd burned shops and homes of Sunnis Sunni Endowment condemned executions of Sunnis UN envoy to Iraq condemned attacks Came after bombing killed Hashd who then carried out revenge attacks

2016 Speaker Jabouri cut short visit to Lebanon to address violence in Muqdadiya Diyala Met with

political and ISF leaders ISF sent to city to restore order and stop violence Was result of Hashd revenge attacks after bombing

2016 Human Rights Watch Blamed both Peshmerga and Shiite Turkmen for violence in Tuz Kharmato

Salahaddin After Oct car bomb during Ashura Shiite Turkmen Hashd arrested 150 Sunnis Some were tortured Some were released 8-34 were killed 50 still held Nov shoot out between Turkmen Hashd and Peshmerga at checkpoint after Hashd car stopped 1 Hashd wounded Brought to hospital where Hashd got angry at staff and started shooting Then fired artillery at hospital Asayesh who were guarding hospital returned fire Peshmerga arrived Led to gun battle with Hashd 3 killed Afterward both sides started kidnapping people Looted Destroyed homes and shops 50 Kurdish buildings destroyed Kurds retaliated by destroying 80 Turkmen buildings Total of 400 buildings were damaged Turkmen began arresting Kurds and Arabs Sep 2014 Peshmerga Asayesh and Hashd cooperated to free Suleiman Beq and Amerli Salahaddin Hashd attacked Sunni villages afterward and kidnapping Sunnis in Tuz Kharmato Suleiman Beq and Amerli

2016 Report After Mosul fell in 2014 military blamed civilians for lack of leadership and funding

Civilians said military was corrupt had ghost soldiers low training poor cohesion Thought both sides right and relationship between govt and ISF bad PM Maliki had control of military with no checks or balances Was afraid of coups Interfered in personnel equipment etc to control it Sidelined Defense Min and parliament Maliki denied himself military expertise and advice with his interference Maliki known to be corrupt and nonresponsive to others Didn’t trust US to rebuild ISF Were ethnosectarian quotas within military leadership Army went through massive expansion with only basic training Hurt development of officers 2008 only 73% of officers and 69% of non-commissioned officer positions were filed Had to recall Baath-era officers to fill gap 70% of officers and almost every general were from Saddam era Parliament’s role in ISF was removed Security comm rarely met because of violence and boycotts US rebuilt Defense Min using civilians rather than soldiers who lacked knowledge of running military Lacked capacity to deal with expansion of forces Defense Min was originally staffed without Iraqi input leading to many problems with Iraqi parties that wanted to control it Maliki centralized military decisions under his control Set up security agencies to spy on military Created paramilitary groups that competed with ISF Used office of cmdr and chief to control military Used office to get around Defense and Interior Mins 2010 Maliki became acting Defense and Interior ministers Took over regional commands and placed loyalists within them Promoted officers loyal to him without parliamentary approval Recruited people with little military background into officer corps that would follow his orders Created info network to spy on military Purged Kurds from 2 divisions in Ninewa Maliki loyalists not held accountable Generals were mostly Sunnis trained in Baathist-Soviet top down military style Young officers 50% Shiite and pushed for decentralized command taught to them by US Were ignored by generals Shiites wanted to make sure most officers were Shiites so quickly promoted them Certain divisions were dominated by one ethnosectarian group and came under control of political parties 9^th Div pro-Dawa 4^th Div pro-PUK 7^th Div pro-Awakening 5^th Div pro-ISCI

2017 VP Maliki said Iran was only country that helped Iraq with weapons after Mosul fell to

IS Accused other countries of holding up aid for months Wasn’t true

2017 KRG borrowed $500 mil at 12% interest without telling parliament Dep PM Q Talabani got 10%

signing bonus from deal Sources said $50 mil from loan sent to private account Was to cover KRG economic crisis due to oil/budget dispute with Baghdad

2018 Baiji official said city not fit to live in 70% of buildings destroyed No services Disease and around

9000 IEDs Said people were being moved back because govt wanted to hold elections

2018 Dawa announced members could run separate in elections PM Abadi formed Nasr VP Maliki would run

with State of Law

(Musings On Iraq It’s Official PM Abadi and VP Maliki Will Run Separately In 2018 Elections)

(Musings On Iraq interview with IRIS-Chatham House’s Mansour on 2018 elections)

2019 PUK official said 30,000 bar/day smuggled from Kirkuk oil field to Sulaymaniya

2020 Sadr met with Pro-Iran groups in Iran Agreed to call for US withdrawal from Iraq

Afterward fighting between Sadr’s Sayara al-Salm and Asaib Ahl Al-Haq ended

2020 Report Speaker Halbusi and other Sunni leaders warned that they would protest if US

forces expelled from Iraq

2021 US sanctioned Hashd Commission chief of staff Abu Fadak from Kataib Hezbollah Said he was

involved in rocket attacks on US targets in Iraq Helped train Bahrani terrorists Fought in Syria Fadak led Hashd protest into Green Zone after Kataib Hezbollah members arrested by PM Kazemi for rocket attack on Green Zone

(Musings On Iraq Pro-Iran Groups Name New Acting Head Of Hashd)

2021 Report after Tikrit freed in 2015 armed groups kidnapped 707 people Eventually more than

10,000 went missing 4 armed groups accused Some believed to be held in secret prisons Was referring to pro-Iran Hashd

2021 Tribes accused Hashd of killing dozens of civilians in Salahaddin after mass grave found in south

with more than 50 bodies Accused Hashd of kidnapping people after freed areas from IS

2021 Police raided school in Nasiriya to arrest protesters PM Kazemi apologized for what happened

2021 Gorran MP said $78 bil had been taken out of 46 banks and laundered since Mar 2016 Included $12 bil

from 4 banks in KRG

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