Friday, February 3, 2023

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 4 Sykes-Picot Agreement approved Baghdad and Basra would’ve gone to UK Mosul to France Sharif Hussein would’ve gotten his own state

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1916 Sykes-Picot agreement approved by UK Foreign Office Gave Baghdad and Basra

vilayets to UK Mosul to France Included independent Arab state for Sharif Hussein

(Musings On Iraq review Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923)

1917 British defeated Ottoman forces at Hai River

1925 League of Nations Mosul commission final report said Mosul should go to British Iraq Mandate

with Kurds getting concessions Said British Mandate in Iraq should continue to ensure stability

(Musings On Iraq How The Ottoman Province Of Mosul Became Part Of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review The Creation of Iraq 1914-1921)

(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)

(Musings On Iraq review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq & the Kurdish Question, 1958-70)

1963 Qasim arrested 1 opponent and removed 48 officers from army connected to Baath Party as

Communists warned of an impending coup

(Musings On Iraq Revolutionary Times, Gen. Qasim And Iraq’s 1958 Coup, Interview With Western Kentucky’s Prof. Juan Romero)

1969 Bakr govt claimed it had implemented 12 point program for Kurds Hadn’t

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

(Musings On Iraq review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq Since 1958, From Revolution To Dictatorship)

1979 Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr began Islam Guides to Life series that outlined his ideas on an Islamic

political system

1981 Iraq received around 100 tanks from Eastern Europe

(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)

1990 Israeli PM Shamir sent letter to Bush Said if Iraqi attack caused large civilian

casualties or used WMD Israel would retaliate

1996 UK intel team arrived in Wash DC to get CIA equipment to tap into Iraqi communications to help

UN inspectors

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

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

1998 UK intel report said UN inspectors had destroyed majority of Iraq’s WMD programs

(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)

1998 Blair govt talked about how dangerous Saddam was due to his WMD capabilities

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

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)

2002 Work on State Dept’s Future of Iraq Project began 17 working groups on Iraq’s postwar needs

Worked mostly with Iraqi exiles

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

(Musings On Iraq review Blood Money, Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq)

2003 US gave documents on alleged Iraq-Niger uranium deal to IAEA Story 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 UN inspectors looked at two alleged mobile WMD labs and found nothing

(Musings On Iraq How Iraqi Defector CURVEBALL Became Basis For US Claim That Iraq Had WMD)

(Musings On Iraq Look Who The LA Times Dug Up – CURVEBALL)

(Musings On Iraq Story of CURVEBALL And Iraq’s Mobile Biological Weapons Labs)

2003 CIA analyst emailed Dep Chief Iraq Task Force against using Curveball story that Iraq had mobile

WMD labs Also questioned 3 supporting sources Dept Chief told analyst war coming so didn’t matter if there were questions about Curveball and his mobile WMD labs story Didn’t exist

(Musings On Iraq review Curveball, Spies, Lies, And The Con Man Who Caused A War)

2003 CIA Dir Tenet warned by European chief Drumheller that there were problems with Curveball’s

story that Iraq had mobile WMD labs Tenet said don’t worry Didn’t exist

2003 PM Blair said plan was to get UN to show Iraq not cooperating on WMD and then have Arab

countries make Saddam step down

2003 Sec State Powell and Turkey’s Foreign Min Yakis met to talk about US aid in return for using

Turkey in Iraq invasion

(Musings On Iraq review Losing Iraq, Inside The Post War Reconstruction Fiasco)

2004 Def Sec Rumsfeld told Congress that ex-Iraq Study Group chief David Kay’s conclusion that

everyone was wrong about Iraq’s WMD was just a hypothesis and Iraq’s weapons might be found

(Musings On Iraq Iraq One Of The Worst Intelligence Failures In US History)

(Musings On Iraq How The Administration Reversed Itself On Finding Iraq’s WMD)

(Musings On Iraq review Hoodwinked, The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War)

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

2004 UK intel officer said intel heads ignored warnings that Iraqi WMD could not be confirmed before

invasion

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

2004 Future IS leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi arrested by Americans and sent to Camp Bucca

(Musings On Iraq interview with Naval War College’s Prof Whiteside on ISI leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi)

2005 Early election results had United Iraqi Alliance 44% Kurds 18% Iraqiya 12% of vote

(Musings On Iraq review The U.S. Army In The Iraq War: Volume 1, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil

War, 2003-2006)

2006 Report Authorities investigating MP Mishan al-Jabouri and his son’s involvement in funding

insurgency Both fled to Syria Jabouri’s bloc won 3 seats in parliament in Dec 05

2007 Report was debate within Bush admin over whether to back PM Maliki or replace him with VP

Adel Abdul Mahdi Decided to support Maliki

2007 Govt’s Article 140 comm said anyone expelled form Kirkuk had right to return and compensation

payment Arabs moved into province during Arabization who wanted to leave would be compensated All Baath laws giving land to Arab settlers were annulled Led to protests by Arabs in Kirkuk PM Maliki did not sign decision

2008 Sadr renewed Mahdi Army ceasefire after 6 months

(Musings On Iraq Sadr’s Leadership Or Lack Thereof)

2008 Report Leader of Fadhil Baghdad sahwa said his neighborhood was independent Said didn’t want ISF

to be there Leader was fmr Baathist Pro-Saddam graffiti was in neighborhood

2009 Gen Austin said Iran still supporting Special Groups and found munitions from Iran in 2009

(Musings On Iraq A History Of Iranian Weapons Shipments To Iraq Interview With Arkenstone Blog’s Galen Wright)

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Overview of Iran’s Influence In Iraq)

2009 Burnham that led Lancet study that said 650k Iraqi civilians died was questioned by Amer Assoc for

Public Opinion Research Burnham only gave partial responses Was censured by group for non-cooperation Study was widely refuted by experts

(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)

2010 PM Maliki called for parliament to meet to discuss unbanning 511 candidates for Baathist ties

Claimed Election Comm didn’t have to follow unbanning Maliki told US Amb Hill to stop interfering in Iraqi politics

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

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Shiite Parties Turn To Blaming America Before The March Elections)

(Musings On Iraq Appeals Court To Go Through Banning Cases Before Iraq’s March Election)

2010 US Embassy cable PM Maliki tried to fire 36 from military intelligence Almost all were Sunnis Maliki

tried to replace them with Dawa members Maliki would fire 376 intel officers total in early 2010

2011 Report KRG still smuggling oil to Iran 2 border crossings had tankers lined up to enter Iran KRG

denied story KRG said all oil sales to Iran were legal Undermined US sanctions on Tehran

2011 Report MP on parliament’s finance comm said Maliki govt wanted to add 285,000 new govt workers

in 2011 budget Govt hiring was suspended for a yr while 2nd Maliki govt formed KRG PM Salah said KRG would hire 25,000 new govt workers Planning Min said hires would help fight unemployment Was really for political patronage

2011 Report Fmr US Amb to Iraq Crocker said that if Allawi didn’t become PM he would drop out of

politics He did until next election Crocker sad new Maliki govt would include everyone that won and that was all that mattered to ruling parties Didn’t care about improving life for Iraqis Wanted coalition govt more than a govt that worked

2011 3000 protests in Qadisiya over lack of jobs and services Broken up by police Protests in 3 parts of

Baghdad

2012 MP on parliament’s finance comm said Maliki govt wanted to hire 90,000 new govt workers in 2012

budget Were currently 59,000 new positions Supposed to fight unemployment and hire college graduates Was for political patronage

2012 Central Bank of Iraq issued new rules that buyers of dollars at its auctions would be made public

Was effort to curb Iran Syria and others from buying dollars Didn’t work

2015 Peshmerga Min said 999 Peshmerga killed and 4569 wounded from Jun 2014-Feb 2015

fighting IS

2016 KRG cabinet said it would cut high ranking officials salaries 75% Other govt workers would

be cut 10-20% Security forces will have no cuts KRG expected $368 mil/mo deficit Govt workers hadn’t been paid for months Led to protests and strikes in Sulaymaniya KRG said govt salaries would be paid and pay cuts were only temporary No sign KRG would fix its financial problems any time soon Even if oil prices increased KRG still had huge debts Began 2014 when PM Maliki cut off monthly budget payments KRG started delaying payments to fuel and electricity companies Borrowed billions Stopped paying oil companies Then worked out temporarily budget deal with PM Abadi which then broke down KRG expanded govt workers and created new electricity and fuel subsidies Together cost $4.5 bil/yr KRG had little to no taxation Private sector small Mostly based upon real estate and connected to PUK and KDP KRG made no reforms as crisis grew Also promised transparency at Natural Resource Min to lesson its control of finances KRG had 1.4 mil govt workers but only 720,000 were permanent workers Had to pay $692 mil/mo to them Was over 70%  of operational budget Many workers received 2 salaries KRG seemed to acknowledge didn’t actually know how many workers were on payroll

2016 Report Rabia Diyala freed more than a yr ago from IS but not rebuilt Jan 200 families out of

3000 returned Govt not paid farmers there for 2 harvests Local leader said hoped KRG would provide aid Said Baghdad wasn’t providing any money because area under KRG administration 70% of homes and 30% of schools in Sinjar Ninewa destroyed

2017 Report German media said weapons it supplied to Peshmerga were being sold on black market

2 sets of reporters found German weapons being sold in Irbil and Sulaymaniya

2018 Report Jan 2018 ISF displaced 235 IS families from 10 villages in Hawija dist Most put in

camps in Kirkuk Afterward Hashd destroyed and looted some of their homes Families interviewed admitted they had relatives in IS Said Hashd and army rounded them up with no warning and had lists of names of people to be forced out Soldiers said families had to prove their innocence

2020 Report Splits within Sadrists over breaking with protests Were posts on social media

criticizing Sadrist attacks on protesters Sadr movement accused protesters of all kinds of things to justify attacks

2021 Report Hashd raided a ship off of Basra Part of pressure campaign to force companies to pay

them extortion money

2021 Report Iraqi cmdr said IS rebuilding in Hamrin area between Salahaddin Diyala Kirkuk

Rugged environment provided cover for insurgency Women moved money food and messages for group

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This Day In Iraqi History - Apr 26 PM Gaylani asked Axis for aid to fight British

  1917 British attacked Turks at Edheim, Diyala and occupied town Turks counterattacked and retook it