Prices For Iraqi Oil Pass $70 Per Barrel For 1st Time In Over 2 Yrs

Iraq’s government revenues continued to rise in June 2021. That was due to prices passing $70 per barrel as the energy market continued to recover after COVID and the Russian-Saudi price war that sent petroleum into a tailspin last year.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 8

 

1920 Rebels derailed 6 trains going from Diwaniya to Samawa to disrupt flow of British troops and

supplies

(Musings On Iraq review of Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

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

1937 Sadabad Pact between Iraq Iran Turkey Afghanistan agreed to borders non-interference regional

security

1973 Police Chief Kazzar and 20 coup plotters executed Another 36 put on trial

1982 Saddam survived assassination attempt in Dujail Saddam ordered town destroyed 1500 residents

arrested 150 executed

1991 Iraq admitted to UN inspectors it had 3 secret programs to enrich uranium to build a nuclear bomb

Before Iraq denied it had any nuclear weapons program

(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)

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

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

1991 Report During Gulf War Coalition said it was only bombing military targets but destroyed Iraq’s

infrastructure as well During war said hits on infrastructure were accidents or collateral damage Late in war bombed facilities knew Iraq couldn’t rebuild on its own to put pressure on military to overthrow Saddam Bombing led to cholera and typhoid outbreak

1995 Ceasefire in Kurdish civil war ended as PUK and KDP went back to fighting over control of Irbil

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

2003 PM Blair told Parliament he believed intelligence that Iraq had WMD

2003 PM Blair said evidence of Iraq-Niger uranium deal was not based upon fake docs but

            separate intel

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

2003 White House spokesman said intelligence on Iraq-Niger uranium deal turned out to be inaccurate

(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)

2003 Wash Post article quoted admin officials saying Iraq-Africa uraniuam claim shouldn’t have been

used in State of Union and story could be wrong

2003 VP Cheney’s chief of staff Libby met NYTimes’ Miller Said Fmr Amb Wilson’s NY Times OpEd

part of CIA campaign to absolve itself of bad intel on Iraq

2003 Libby told NYTimes’ Miller Fmr Amb Wilson’s report on his trip to Niger never made it out of CIA

and found evidence Iraq did try to buy uranium

2003 Libby told NYTimes’ Miller Natl Intel Est had stronger evidence that Iraq tried to buy uranium

from Africa

2003 Libby told NYTimes’ Miller that Wilson’s wife’s name was Valerie Plame and she worked at

            CIA Miller would later denied she got her name from Libby

2003 Columnist Novak asked DepSecState Armitage why fmr Amb Wilson sent to Niger to look into Iraq

uranium deal Armitage said because his wife worked at CIA

2003 Bush Chief of Staff Rove confirmed to columnist Novak that fmr Amb Wilson’s wife sent him to

Niger

2004 Al Qaeda in Iraq beheaded Bulgarian civilians Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov

2004 US and Iraqi officials said decision to stop 1st Fallujah battle was wrong and city now controlled

by insurgents

2004 US and Iraqi intel reports said Zarqawi using Fallujah as a base

(Musings On Iraq review The Battle for Fallujah, Occupation, Resistance and Stalemate in the War in Iraq)

2005 Iraq constitutional committee started its work

(Musings On Iraq interview with constitutional scholar Zaid al-Ali on Iraq’s constitution)

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Struggle For Iraq’s Future, How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy)

2007 Report Sadr had gone back to Iran after short stay in Iraq in May Sadr fled to Iran in February

believing that US would target him during Surge

2008 Report Al Qaeda sent foreign fighters to Sudan and Somalia rather than Iraq due to downturn in

insurgency

(Musings On Iraq Demise of Al Qaeda In Iraq Update)

2008 Head of Kurdish bloc in parliament Othman said KRG oil deals were illegal 1st Kurdish official

            to criticize deals

2009 US unit hit by IED in Najaf planted by police Previous Najaf police chiefs fired for connections

to militias

2009 MP on farming committee said farmland decreased by 60% Main reason decline of water from

            neighboring countries

2018 2 killed 2 wounded by police firing into protesters demanding jobs electricity water in Imam

Sadiq Basra ISF claimed armed men fired on them first as excuse Were also protests in Basra City Maysan Dhi Qar Muthanna and Wasit over electricity jobs services

(Musings On Iraq Summer Protests In Iraq Turn Deadly In Basra)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

U.S. Army History Of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 6 – Lost In Transition, May-July 2003

The United States was not only unprepared for the occupation of Iraq but actively made it worse. That’s the subject of the 6^th Chapter of the U.S. Army’s history of the Iraq War. First, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) not only alienated Sunnis but fueled the insurgency and militias. The military on the other hand was focused upon withdrawing and had no security plan for the country. All together this was a recipe for disaster.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 7

 

1921 American consul in Baghdad wrote that Faisal would become King of Iraq even though he was

unpopular in the country

1921 Naqib of Baghdad gave dinner where pledged support for Faisal as king

1921 Gertrude Bell noted that Iraqi notables couldn’t wait for election to appoint Faisal King because

would take 2 months and that was too long

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell And Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)

(Musings On Iraq movie review Letters from Baghdad)

1965 Kurds claimed they were using artillery for first time against govt forces

(Musings On Iraq review of 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 Journey Among Brave Men, Travels in Kurdistan)

1973 Police Chief Kazzar and 20 other coup plotters found guilty and given death sentence

1973 Baath Regional Congress expanded membership to accommodate Saddam supporters

1984 Iraqi govt uncovered plot to assassinate Saddam Executed some 50 army officers as a result

1987 UN Resolution 598 called for ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War

(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)

1991 UN inspectors found several kilograms of enriched uranium and large stocks of natural

            uranium from Iraq’s nuclear weapons program

1991 Iraq Foreign Min Hussein told UN that it would make a declaration of its nuclear program Said Iraq

had not violated Non-Proliferation Treaty or IAEA safeguards

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

1991 Iraq’s concealment committee met Decided to reveal details about nuke program after inspectors

found site Decided to secretly destroy WMD programs and materials to hide them from inspectors Would prove long term problem because Iraq could never fully prove what it destroyed and what it was hiding to inspectors

(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)

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

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

1997 Turkey withdrew its forces from Kurdistan after killing over 2,000 PKK fighters

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

2003 CPA suspended Iraq’s old banking laws as part of reform program Signed order to exchange old dinars

for new ones to stabilize currency

2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld told Senate US didn't go to war with Iraq because it had dramatic new

            evidence of its WMD programs

2003 White House admitted Bush’s State of Union claim Iraq tried to buy uranium

            from Africa Shouldn't have been used

2003 VP Cheney’s chief of staff Libby told White House spokesman Fleischer fmr Amb Wilson’s wife

sent him to Niger to investigate Iraq-Niger uranium deal Was attempt to discredit Wilson

(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)

2003 SCIRI dropped objection to joining Iraqi Governing Council after lobbying by UN

2003 UK parliament’s Foreign Affairs comm report on UK dossier on Iraq’s WMD said was not sexed up

by Blair govt

2003 UK Foreign Affairs comm report said Blair govt didn’t mislead parliament but misstated some of

the intel on Iraq’s WMD

2003 UK Foreign Affairs comm report said claim Iraq could use WMD in 45 min should not have been so

prominent in dossier

2003 UK parliament’s Foreign Affairs comm report said UK dossier on Iraq WMD should’ve been more

qualified on story Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa

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

2003 State Dept intel agency sent memo to DepSec State Armitage originally from June that said Iraq-

Niger docs were fakes

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

2004 US Iraq cmdr Gen Casey told Bush 70% of Fallujah Brigade had joined insurgency

2004 Sen Intel Comm found major judgements in Oct 02 Natl Intel Est on Iraq’s WMD and nuke program

were overstated and generally not supported

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

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

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US intel claims Iraq had WMD and programs larger than before Gulf War

were overstated

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US had evidence Iraq buying dual use equipment Uncertain Iraq had

destroyed its WMD stocks after Gulf War

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US intel didn’t have much good info on Iraq’s WMD and nuke programs

after UN inspections ended in 1998

2004 Sen Intel Comm found US intel suffered from group think Assumed Iraq had WMD Assumed

everything it did was to expand those programs

2004 Senate Intel Comm report on pre-war intel found that all of CIA’s claims about Iraq renewed nuke

program were wrong and weak to begin with

2004 Sen Intel Comm found CIA justified to claim Iraq-Al Qaeda might have cooperated based upon pre-

war intel

2005 Iraq and Iran’s Defense Ministries signed military cooperation agreement

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

2005 Report Human Rights Min said Iraqi forces carried out random arrests not using

            warrants torturing and abusing prisoners

2005 Report Human Rights Min official said Iraqi forces conducting extrajudicial

            killings and govt not doing anything about it

2005 Report $8.8 bil went missing in Iraqi ministries during CPA period 03-04

(Musings On Iraq interview with Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen on Iraq’s fight with corruption) 

(Musings On Iraq interview with former anti-corruption official Vincent Foulk)

2006 Bush said Americans were wondering if US could win Iraq war Said US was winning

(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)

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

2006 US Iraq cmdr Gen Casey given investigative report on Marines killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha

2006 Integrity Commission head Radi said weak institutions and lack of punishment led

            to uncontrolled corruption

2008 PM Maliki said he wanted a memo of understanding on withdrawal of US forces

            instead of a Status of Forces Agreement which was stalled

(Musings On Iraq Iraq Asks US To Draw Up Withdrawal Plans: Move Towards Autonomy, Electioneering, Or Brinkmanship by the Maliki Government?)

2008 Female suicide bomber hit market in Baquba 23rd female suicide bombing of the year

(Musings On Iraq The Rise of Female Suicide Bombers)

(Musings On Iraq Motivations Behind Female Suicide Bombers)

(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)

2008 Report 94% decline in attacks by ISI 25 in Nov 07 vs 334 Nov 06

2013 KRG Pres Barzani visited Baghdad to try to resolve problems with PM Maliki

2017 Protesters seized power plant in Babil due to electricity shortages

2018 Protest in Imam Sadiq Basra blocked main road over electricity shortages

(Musings On Iraq Summer Protests In Iraq Turn Deadly In Basra)

View the Iraq History Timelines

Security In Iraq June 2021

Violence in Iraq declined in June 2021 after the Islamic State’s short lived Ramadan offensive ended. Attacks by pro-Iran groups have also gone down since April.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 6

 

1920 British reinforcements sent to Rumaitha from north ran into rebel force and withdrew

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

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

1948 Iraqi air force attacked Israeli military base

1965 Iraqi pilot killed by Mossad after refusing to defect to Israel with a MiG-21 Was 2^nd pilot

killed by Israelis

1968 3^rd Kurdish minister resigned over PM Yahya’s Kurdish policy

1980 Saddam told Baath Party leadership he was going to invade Iran

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

1991 Baghdad demanded Peshmerga disband Close Kurdish radio stations End contacts with foreign

govts Kurds demanded democracy talks over Kirkuk Offered to give up heavy weapons close radio stations end contacts with foreign govts

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

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

2003 Fmr Amb Wilson NY Times OpEd said Bush exaggerated about Iraq-Niger uranium story in State of

Union Said CIA sent him to Niger to investigate uranium story and found no evidence

2003 Fmr Amb Wilson said he never saw fake Iraq-Niger docs but VP Cheney’s office should’ve been

sent report on his trip Wilson overestimated impact of his visit to discredit Iraq-Niger uranium story Actually increased questions

2003 Fmr Amb Wilson on Meet The Press said VP Cheney should’ve gotten report on his trip to Niger

2003 VP Cheney questioned Wilson’s OpEd and asked why he was sent to Niger

(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)

2003 US said it would release Turkish Special Forces it arrested in Sulaymaniya

2004 Cabinet gave PM Allawi emergency powers to declare state of emergency national curfew restrict

movement appoint military governors seize assets Allawi only declared a few curfews

2004 PM Blair told Parliament that he didn’t know what happened to Iraq’s WMD Said they could have

been hidden or destroyed

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

2004 Report 2000 CIA started program to contact relatives of Iraqi WMD scientists that lived in west to

try to collect intel Relatives said Iraq had no WMD programs Intel not included in reports or passed to White House

2004 Car bomb at US-Iraqi National Guard post in Samarra Led to 450 of 500 Iraqi guardsmen to quit

2005 Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed it executed Egypt ambassador to Iraq Ihab al-Sharif

2006 In coordinated attacks across central Iraq insurgents took down every power line to Baghdad Part

of campaign to deprive capital of electricity

2008 Fmr Undersec Def Feith claimed WMD was not one of core arguments for Iraq invasion Claimed

CIA pushed Iraq being a WMD threat

2008 UAE cancelled $7 bil in Iraqi debt Announced would be sending ambassador to Baghdad

2018 Protests in Madina over services Abu Khasib cutting road over electricity Basra City cut roads over

unfinished projects Shatt al-Arab over salinity Dhi Qar for recount in election

(Musings On Iraq Summer Protests In Iraq Turn Deadly In Basra)

View the Iraq History Timelines

Iraq’s Electricity Grid Shuts Down During Summer Heat

(Al Mirbad)

As temperatures regularly rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit/38 degrees Celsius per day Iraq’s power grid shut down. That trickled down throughout society as water went off because it relies upon electricity and drove people out into the streets in protest.