This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 12 Colonial Sec Churchill began Cairo Conference to determine future of Mesopotamia

(Wikipedia)

1914 UK sent ultimatum to Ottomans If they wanted to increase tariffs had to allow merger

of Turkish Petroleum Company that was going to get oil concession in Mosul vilayet with Anglo-Persian Oil Company 1^st sign UK wanted to control Mesopotamian oil

1917 Gen Maude ordered to maintain Ottoman administration in Baghdad vilayet Replace

Turkish bureaucrats with Arab ones

1921 Start of Cairo Conference where UK decided on its future MidEast policy with

Mesopotamia being centerpiece Colonial Sec Churchill’s main concern was cutting costs for London Said UK troops would be withdrawn in Mesopotamia as quickly as possible Air power would be used for control Sir Percy Cox and Gen Haldane objected to Churchill’s troops reduction plan saying soldiers still needed in Mesopotamia Royal Air Force said it would need another year to set up in Mesopotamia Meant Churchill could not withdraw UK troops as quickly as he wanted Most at conference supported a Hashemite either Faisal or Abdullah becoming ruler in Mesopotamia Churchill said putting Faisal in power in Mesopotamia would be part of larger policy to have Hashemites beholden to UK in Mecca and Transjordan Churchill believed putting Faisal in power would lead to Mesopotamian govt that could run things and save UK money Churchill was open to creating a Kurdish state Thought would be a buffer between Turkey and Mesopotamia Sir Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell argued for a unitary Mesopotamian state that included Kurds

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1935 PM Midfai govt decided to put down tribal revolt with force and sent recommendation

to King Ghazi who did not support it King pushed for talks to end revolt

1959 Nasser gave 2^nd speech attacking Iraqi Communists Said that they would never be able

to stop Arab nationalism Said Communists relied upon Shiites for support who opposed Arab nationalism Denied that he supported Col Arif against Qasim govt

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1970 Pres Bakr said war vs Kurds was over Kurds would have cultural autonomy and national

rights

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

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1974 After talks broke down with Baghdad and it imposed own law for Kurdistan KDP

restarted rebellion

1975 Baghdad offered KDP truce to allow its forces to retreat to Iran or surrender

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(Musings On Iraq When The Shah and Nixon Manipulated The Kurds)

1975 Barzani met with political and military leaders Decided to continue fighting Bakr govt

            despite Iran ending aid

1979 At National Security Council Saddam decided that govt would take control of religious

sphere to protect country from ideas that could threaten the regime

1984 Iraq called off attacks into Basra marshes to try to recapture Majnoon Islands Iran lost

20,000 dead 30,000 wounded 1,000 captured Iraq lost 3,000 dead 9,000 wounded and 1/6 of its oil reserves

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1985 Iran Op Badr reached Tigris River Began building bridge across it then forced back

Reached Baghdad-Basra highway and took Qurna but then retaken by Iraqis 2 Revolutionary Guard divisions attacked from Majnoon Islands and forced Iraqis to retreat

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1985 Iraq started using chemical weapons against Iran’s Op Badr over next 4 weeks Iran

claimed it suffered 4,600 casualties as a result

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1986 CIA said that Iraq facing worst situation since start of war after Iran captured Faw

Peninsula Basra Warned that if Iran carried out more offensives could break the Iraqi army and Saddam could be deposed

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(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 1: The Battle for Khuzestan, September 1980-May 1982)

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1991 UN Security Council condemned Iraq over inspections Said inspectors were final decider on

whether Iraq disarmed or not

1991 Govt operation to retake Najaf from Shiite rebels began

1991 Iraqi refugees fleeing country claimed govt forces used napalm to put down uprising

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

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1991 Wash Post OpEd by Ahmed Chalabi Criticized US for allowing Saddam to stay in power

and put down 1991 uprising

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1993 Iraqi army attacked Aweina Kurdistan killing 30

2002 VP Cheney made trip to Middle East to gain support for Iraq war

2002 Blair For Pol Adv Manning met with Natl Sec Adv Rice and said UK supported regime

change in Iraq but needed good strategy

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2002 2 CIA reports said aluminum tubes Iraq tried to buy were for centrifuges and Iraq might

be trying to build a nuclear weapon Were for rockets

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

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2002 Labor Party meeting at parliament Foreign Sec Straw presented paper that Iraq’s WMD

a threat

2002 SCIRI met State Dept official Said Bush ordered overthrow of Saddam and wanted to

plan for post-war Iraq State wanted to hold meeting of Iraqi opposition to get idea of what Iraq like

2003 Bush called PM Blair about vote on 2^nd UN resolution on Iraq Bush said if didn’t have

votes shouldn’t have a vote

2003 Bush called Mexican Pres Fox and Chilean Pres Lagos on 2^nd UN resolution Fox non-

committal Lagos said he would vote no

2003 Bush called PM Blair and said that vote on 2^nd UN resolution was dead

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2003 UN committee reported that Iraq violating sanctions

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2003 Iraqi scientists began private interviews with UN inspectors

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2003 Bush endorsed Def Dept plan for quick transition to Iraqi authority made up of exiles

and Kurds after war

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2003 UnderSecDef Feith briefed NSC on postwar plans Said Foreign Min and embassies

needed to be purged Wanted to disband intel services Republican Guard State Security Office militias Cut military to 3-5 divisions Said rebuilding military would be paid for by Iraq Would have own equipment Military would be used for rebuilding Iraq Warned would be dangerous to disband military Republican Guard security services would be disbanded Talked about creating interim govt with mix of exiles and Iraqis from within Iraq

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2003 White House reviewed plan to ship $1.7 bil in frozen Iraqi assets in U.S. to Iraq to pay

for Iraqi public workers and pensions

2004 Sadrists destroyed Gypsy village of Qawliya, Qadisiya

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2006 6 car bombs in Shiite areas in Baghdad killed 58 wounded 200

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2006 US soldiers gang raped 14 yr old Iraqi girl in Mahmudiya and then killed her family

2006 US began Op Scales of Justice in Baghdad US cmdrs complained they didn’t have

enough troops to carry out new operation because of withdrawals US Iraq cmdr Gen Casey said that was the point of drawdown for US to do less

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2007 Report Sadr met with Ayatollah Sistani and asked what he should do about attacks

upon his movement Sistani told him he could withdraw or take the consequences Sadr ended up leaving for Iran

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2008 2^nd day of fighting Mahdi Army forced police out of Kut Came after Sadr said militia

could defend themselves during freeze Police raided Sadrists areas in city leading to fighting

2008 Pentagon said it would not publicly release its study that found no Iraq-Al Qaeda links

based upon 600,000 captured Iraq docs Would not even be posted on the Internet

2008 US reported violence hit nadir Dropped from Nov 07-Feb 08 Avg number of insurgents

attacks went from 180 per day in Jun 07 to 60 per day in Jan 08

2008 Sir Synnott former CPA official in charge of south Iraq said UK wanted to portray

stable Iraq after invasion but didn’t spend time and money to rebuild CPA focused on large projects but not small sustainable ones that would have benefited more Iraqis

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2010 Report Pres of EU election observers said Iran interfered in election results Accused

high official in Election Comm of putting in false data for State of Law

2011 Senior Judge said parties saw ministries as bank accounts for themselves No reason to

prosecute petty corruption cases when the ministers and parties plundered the state

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2011 KDP-PUK alliance said that KRG would implement reforms in 3-4 months in response

to protests Never happened

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(Musings On Iraq How Iraq’s Kurdistan Broke Up Two Months Of Protests)

2011 KDP-PUK accused Gorran of working with Iranian Rev Guards and Muslim Scholars

Association to stoke protests in Sulaymaniya Gorran said accusations false and ruling parties against reforms

2011 Report women politicians lacked power in govt 2^nd Maliki govt only had 1 woman

minister Of 86 female MPs only 5 got enough votes to win seats Rest got seats via 25% quota for women Many were relatives of party members to gain quota seats

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2011 PM Maliki met with tribal leaders Asked them to limit protests claiming there was a

conspiracy against him

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2013 Kurdish and most of Iraqiya ministers boycotted cabinet meeting Kurds angry over

2013 budget Iraqiya supporting protests

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2013 Finance Min Issawi told Ramadi protesters ISF tried to arrest him when he went to

funeral in Rutba

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2014 Planning Min official said up to 90% of the capital budget for investment was returned

Said provinces and ministers couldn’t spend their budgets

2014 Report 100s of 1000s of dinars stolen from ISF in Ninewa Police were supposed to get

500,000 dinars/mo but only got 250,000/mo Traffic police demanded Finance Min investigating missing pay

(Musings On Iraq Insurgent Financing In Iraq’s Ninewa Province)

2015 Report IS had special group to find and sell antiquities in Mosul Employed locals to

help IS making news destroying historical sites but was more interested in looting them first IS earned up to $24 mil in Feb 2015 from stolen artifacts from Mosul Museum

(Musings On Iraq Destruction Of Historical Sites In Iraq Hides Looting Campaign By Islamic State)

2015 Report IS burned 1500 historic manuscripts Bulldozed Assyrian city of Nimrod and

Hatra in Ninewa Looted Assyrian city of Khorsabad Bombed Ibn al-Atheer shrine and Mosque of the Prophet Yunus after took Mosul in 2014 Looted sites and sold items on black market

2015 Babil council decided not to allow displaced to return to Jurf al-Sakhr dist Said it was

unsafe Real reason was along pilgrimage route for Shiites Residents never allowed back

2015 Harith al-Dhari head of Association of Muslim Scholars died in Turkey Was critic of US

occupation and supported insurgency Sons and nephew became leaders in insurgency Warrant led to him to flee Iraq US and UN labeled him a terrorist supporter

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2016 PM Abadi called on political parties to present their technocratic candidates for new

cabinet Only 3 parties did so

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2017 Najaf Dhi Qar Muthanna Wasit Qadisiya all objected to plan to privatize electricity

Baghdad wanted to privatize distribution to provinces Bill passed 2012 Only implemented 5 yrs later Attempt to control usage and deal with power shortages Didn’t work

2018 Municipal workers protested in Zubayr Basra over not getting paid for 2 months Threw

stones at govt offices

2018 Report 1000s of IS fighters in Hawija south Kirkuk Hid instead of fought while district cleared

2018 Sheikh and son from Jabouri tribe killed by IS south Ninewa Part of campaign by IS against tribal leaders

2019 Iraq’s military air traffic control pressured by Hashd to restrict US drone flights over

Babil’s Jurf al-Sakhr Was large Kataib Hezbollah base

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2020 US-UK airstrikes on Hashd camps in east Syria Kataib Hezbollah bases in Babil Anbar

and Karbala Retaliation for rocket attack upon Camp Taji that killed 2 US soldiers 1 UK soldier and a US contractor Airstrikes killed 5 ISF

(Musings On Iraq Tit For Tat Between U.S. and Pro-Iran Hashd Continues)

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2020 Pro-Iran Hashd offices burned in Maysan after 2 activists assassinated Mar 11 Another

activist survived assassination attempt

(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)

(Musings On Iraq United Nations Faults Iraq For Failing To Protect Protesters)

2021 Protests in Dhi Qar demanding accountability for assassination of activist Protest in

Najaf demanding governor be dismissed

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