Musings On Iraq In The News

Musings On Iraq was cited in "A Man, A Plan, So What? The Influence of Abu Mus'ab al-Suri, Reconsidered" by Phillip William Etches for Small Wars Journal.

Link to all of Musings On Iraq's citations and original work and appearances

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 21

1933 800 Assyrians left Mosul province for Syria asking for asylum from French because didn't want

to be part of Iraq Assyrian leader Mar Shimun denied he was involved Iraqi army sent to border crossing and told Assyrians they could only return to Iraq if they disarmed

(Musings On Iraq book review of The Tragedy of the Assyrian Minority in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review State and Society in Iraq)

1958 Gen Qasim set up court to try “enemies of the people” meaning officials from monarchy

(Musings On Iraq interview with Western Kentucky’s Prof Romero on the Qasim govt)

1982 Iran made third attack as part of Op Ramadan in Basra Was stopped 10km into Iraq Iraqis

counter attacked and drove Iranians back

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq book review of Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)

1990 Iraq announced that it had placed troops along border with Kuwait

(Musings On Iraq book review The Saddam Tapes)

(Musings On Iraq book review from storm to Freedom, America’s Long War with Iraq)

1991 PM Hammadi met with Barzani to try to stop fighting and reach deal on Kurdish autonomy

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

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

1993 UNHCR spokesman said that 3,000 Shiites fled to Iran to avoid Iraqi army attacks on villages in

southern marshes

2003 UN-IOM convoy fired upon by insurgents in Babil 1^st attack on humanitarian group in Iraq

2003 UN Sec Gen Annan approved Iraqi Governing Council

2003 NatlSecAdv Rice called MSBC’s Chris Matthews saying Fmr Amb Wilson’s story on Iraq-Niger deal

was part of a political campaign against the White House Said Wilson’s wife was open target and Wilsons were against Bush so White House against them

(Musings On Iraq article on Iraq-Niger uranium story)

2003 US received intel that Uday and Qusay Hussein were in Mosul

(Musings On Iraq book review Special Operations Forces in Iraq)

2005 Pentagon said half of 93,800 Iraqi police had finished basic training and were not ready for duty yet

(Musings On Iraq article on pre-Surge US Iraq strategy)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Jerry Burke police and Interior Min adviser on how US failed to develop the Iraqi police)

2005 Insurgents kidnapped 2 Algerian diplomats in Baghdad

2006 Report sectarian cleansing going on in Baghdad’s Ghaziliya and Sadiya neighborhoods Sunni gunmen

told Shiites to leave in Sadiya Inter Min police took away 10 Sunni men in Ghazilya Bodies later found

(Musings On Iraq book review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)

2006 UK Gen Shireff wrote Maysan not as good as reported by UK officials Basra lacked security UK had to

win battle of Basra by defeating Mahdi Army and death squads

2012 ISI leader Baghdadi announced the Breaking Walls Campaign in Iraq Was his first online statement

Said it was new phase of jihad Campaign sign IS had rebuilt after defeat

2013 ISIS attacked Abu Ghraib and Tikrit prisons Freed 500 prisoners from Abu Ghraib End of Breaking

Walls Campaign

2017 3^rd time Anbar council attempted to remove Governor Rawi on corruption charges

2017 Fmr Salahaddin Gov Jabouri received 2 yr prison sentence for corruption

2018 Protests in Baghdad Basra Najaf Qadisiya Most broken up by ISF Human Rights Comm in Basra

criticized govt for shutting down Internet to impede protests Qadisiya sheikhs rejected calls to end protests Activists in Baghdad claimed they were tortured after being arrested Protester in Basra died of wounds

2018 Report Qadisiyah intelligence going after demonstrators and monitoring them on social media ISF

claimed protests plotting to overthrow the govt

2018 Dawa member said protesters were trying to overthrow the govt by targeting airports businesses and

ports

View the Iraq History Timelines 

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 20

1920 Pro-Independence delegation of Iraqis met UK High Commissioner Wilson who invited 20 pro-

British Iraqis Meeting went nowhere British later tried to arrest pro-independence delegates

1920 British reinforcements arrived helping defeat tribal fighters in 2^nd Battle of Aridiyat

1920 Tribal fighters laid siege to Kufa

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

1933 Mosul province told many Assyrians had left for Syria from Dohuk area

(Musings On Iraq book review of The Tragedy of the Assyrian Minority in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review State and Society in Iraq)

1959 Gen Qasim put several Communists on trial for hand in Jul 14 fighting between Kurds and

Turkmen in Kirkuk

(Musings On Iraq book 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)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Western Kentucky’s Prof Romero on the Qasim govt)

1961 Kuwait told Arab League Iraq stopped working with League because Qasim claimed Kuwait as part of

Iraq

1970 Pres Bakr attacked Communists for not accepting Baathist leadership in govt

(Musings On Iraq book 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)

1987 Iraq accepted UN Res 598 calling for a ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War Iran didn’t reject it which was a first

1988 Iraqi forces reached Iranian border in Kurdistsan

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

1988 Ayatollah Khomeini said that he endorsed Iran-Iraq War ceasefire

1988 UN Sec Gen de Cuellar invited Iraq and Iran foreign ministers to NY for talks to end war Iran

refused direct talks saying it didn’t accept Saddam’s govt Led Saddam to go back on offensive to make Iran talk

1988 Iraq tried to add 3 more requirements to UN Res 598 ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War including direct

talks with Iran Was meant to delay talks so Iraq could gain more territory to increase its position

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1990 Pentagon report said Iraq unlikely to use force against Kuwait

1991 KDP and PUK launched attacks in Irbil, Dohuk, Sulaymaniya provinces UN said Kurds had

taken large parts of Sulaymaniya Iraq accused Iran of interference

1998 US asked PUK and KDP to meet in Washington for peace talks over civil war

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

2002 CIA Dir Tenet met MI6 Head Dearlove Tenet said WMD intel didn’t matter because war was inevitable

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

Tragedy)

2003 Sadrists protested in Najaf against US harassment

2003 Report US military teams searching for Iraq’s WMD frustrated by not finding anything

2003 Report Jun 02 US started campaign to use No Fly Zones to degrade Iraq’s air defenses to prepare for

invasion

2003 Report US intel actually knew very little about Iraq’s WMD after UN inspectors left in 90s

2004 Filipino driver kidnapped by insurgents Was released after Philippines withdrew its 51 soldiers from

Iraq

2004 PM Blair defended Iraq war to parliament saying caveats should have been included in UK dossier on

Iraq WMD

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

2006 Bush told violence moving from insurgency to sectarian Overwhelming Maliki govt ISF involved in

sectarian violence

2006 UK Amb to Iraq Patey said Coalition facing strategic failure in Iraq Civil war or division of Iraq

possible Happened despite political progress in Iraq but that also increased sectarian divisions UK needed to push Iraqi govt into lead and ensure it has monopoly of force

2008 Iraqi Accordance Front ended 11 month boycott of parliament gaining no concessions from PM Maliki

(Musings On Iraq article on Accordance Front boycott)

2018 Protests in Babil Baghdad Basra Dhi Qar Karbala Maysan Muthanna Najaf Qadisiya Wasit for services

and jobs 2 killed 1 in Najaf 1 in Qadisiya by police and Badr guard Almost all broken up by police

(Musings On Iraq article on Jul 20 protest activity)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 19

1920 Start of 2^nd Battle of Aridiyat between British and tribal forces

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

1921 Royal Iraqi Military College opened

1988 Tariz Aziz said Iraq accepted Iran offer to accept UN Res 598 to end war but military ops would

continue until Iran confirmed deal

1988 Iraq took Dehloran Iran 20,000 Iranian casualties 6000 captured

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1988 Iraq used poison gas against Kurdish villages

1991 UN complained Baghdad blocking it from helping displaced in southern marshes

1991 Demonstration in Kurdistan over food shortages led to police firing into crowd Led to 2 days of

fighting with 100 killed

2002 MI6 head Dearlove said US already decided on military action to remove Saddam talk was now about

how and when

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Section 3.4 Development of UK Iraq Strategy and Options, Late July to 14 September 2002)

2002 Gen Franks briefed Bush on Running Start war plan Would have enough forces in theater at 100,000

to start operations

(Musings On Iraq book review of Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Role of Military Intelligence Assessment)

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

Tragedy)

2003 On defensive over not finding WMD White House released parts of 02 National Intel Est that Iraq was

rebuilding its WMD and nuke programs

2003 US began asking UN for help in Iraq after it spurned its role immediately before and after invasion

2004 Carnegie pre-2002 US intel on Iraq WMD generally good 02-03 reporting became more certain beyond

evidence Bush admin misrepresented threat posed by Iraq WMD and nuke program UN inspectors proved accurate that Iraq didn’t have WMD or nuke programs nor stocks

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

(Musings On Iraq article UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

2005 US complained to Iran about supplying EFPs to militias

(Musings On Iraq interview with Galen Wright of Arkenstone blog on Iranian arms shipments to Iraqi militias) 

(Musings On Iraq article on Iran’s Iraq policy)

2005 2 Sunni members of constitutional committee Issa and Obeidi were assassinated Sunni delegation

suspended work afterward

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

2005 Iraq-Iran signed deal for Iraq to export 150,000 bar/day of oil to Iranian refinery in Abadan and send

refined products back to Iraq

2006 Report Iraqi govt told civilians in Baghdad to check IDs of ISF to make sure they were real not death

squads or insurgents

(Musings On Iraq book review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)

2006 NSC memo PM Maliki govt struggling to implement policy and deal with security Said Interior Min

making violence worse Called for review of US Iraq strategy Suggested troop increase might be necessary

2006 UK Intel report Violence more complex with multiple actors Violence spiraling out of control of Iraqi

govt Highest levels of violence since 2003 Insurgent commitment to violence unchanged

2007 1920 Revolution Brigades Ansar al-Sunna Iraqi Hamas announced front group Political Office for the

Iraqi Resistance Said willing to negotiate a US withdrawal Attacked ISI for sectarian killings and suicide bombings vs civilians

(Musings On Iraq book review The Caliphate At War, Operational Realities and Innovations of the Islamic State)

2008 Gen Petraeus said Al Qaeda was changing focus from Iraq to Afghanistan

(Musings On Iraq article on decline of insurgency)

2017 Salahaddin Gov Jabouri arrested over corruption charges

2018 Protests in Baghdad Basra Maysan Activists were planning national protests for Jul 20 Govt offering

jobs and investment and promising to meet protesters’ demands

2018 Heavy police and army presence set up around Basra oil fields to block protests there

2018 Iraqi Human Rights Commission condemned use of excessive force by Iraqi forces against

demonstrators including shootings beatings arbitrary arrests Amnesty Intl talked to 2 protesters arrested and tortured by ISF who wanted to know who organizers were

(Musings On Iraq article on Jul 19 protest activity)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Postwar Situation In Fallujah Rebuilding Mostly Done Economy And Services Not Recovered

(REACH)

There is very little information coming out about Iraq’s postwar areas. The Iraqi media says little and the western press even less. NGOs are the only organizations putting out reports on these places. REACH released an assessment of Anbar’s Fallujah district. It found that almost all the displaced have returned, war damaged was mostly repaired, but there is a lack of services and jobs which is hindering the revival of the economy.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jul 18

1926 Turkey and England agreed on final border between Iraq and Turkey

(Musings On Iraq interview with Princeton’s Sara Pursley on Sykes-Picot and creation of Iraq)

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

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

1937 Treaty of Tehran Kept 1913 Constantinople Protocol that gave Shatt al-Arab to Iraq Added

that border between Iran and Iraq ran along the thalweg in the Shatt al-Arab

1979 Saddam accused Revolutionary Command Council member Mashadi and 4 others of Syrian backed

coup plot Meant to remove Saddam’s opponents

1980 CIA memo said that border clashes pointed to possible war between Iran and Iraq

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

1988 Iran and Iraq agreed upon ceasefire under UN Resolution 598

1988 Soviet UN Amb Vorontsov arrived in Baghdad Sent letter to UN Secretary Gen that Iran would

accept UN Res 598 Said ceasefire would start in Aug

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1990 Saddam moved 3 tank divisions to Iraq-Kuwait border

1990 Saddam demanded that Kuwait repay for allegedly stealing oil and nullify debt from Iran-Iraq War

(Musings On Iraq book review The Saddam Tapes)

1990 Kuwait cabinet believed Iraq threats were to get it to continue financial aid to Baghdad Thought if

there was military action with Iraq would just be along border

1990 Sec Def Cheney said US would defend Kuwait Pentagon later said press exaggerated his statement

1991 UN inspectors found hidden Iraqi missile program and destroyed equipment

1998 UN inspectors went to Iraq Air Force HQ Found document showing Iraqis used mustard gas tabun

sarin gas gangrene during Iran-Iraq War in huge quantities Iraqis refused to let inspectors keep the document

(Musings On Iraq article UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq article Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Saddam Tapes)

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

2003 Pentagon approved CPA’s Vision for Iraq to build a democratic country

2003 Sadr attacked Iraqi Governing Council as unbelievers Announced that he was creating Mahdi Army to

fight US and British occupation

2003 White House answered questions about making Iraq-Africa uranium claim that CIA opposed Tried to

blame CIA for including Iraq-Africa uranium claim in Bush State of the Union

2003 Sr White House official asked about problems with WMD claims in Bush State of Union said

President not a fact checker

2003 Aid to Natl Sec Adv Rice blamed for pushing CIA to allow Iraq-Africa uranium claim into Bush State

of the Union

(Musings On Iraq article on Iraq-Niger uranium story)

2003 6 US soldiers in Fallujah that complained to news about extended tours discharged by White House

2004 Insurgents offered $285,000 reward for anyone that could kill PM Allawi

2005 Ayatollah Sistani said violence in Iraq reaching level of a genocidal war

2005 Meeting on Iraq reconstruction in Jordan said that US rebuilding program failed to provide basic

services

2005 Weekly Standard article claimed Iraq considered bin Laden an intelligence asset in 92 and worked

together in terrorist plots Included conspiracy theory that Iraq behind 1993 World Trade Center bombing

(Musings On Iraq article on Mylroie’s Iraq conspiracy theories)

2006 Ayatollah Sistani condemned violence in Iraq

2007 US announced it captured ISI Information Min Mashadani who fed disinformation to US

            that ISI front for Al Qaeda and Abu Omar al-Baghdad didn’t exist

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

2008 Report US forces trying to shut down Iranian supply networks to militias in Basra Maysan Wasit

Diyala

(Musings On Iraq article on going after Iran’s supply lines in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq article on Iran’s Iraq policy)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Galen Wright of Arkenstone blog on Iranian arms shipments to Iraqi militias) 

2014 IS said all minorities in Mosul had to convert to Islam pay religious tax or die Started exodus of

Christians from city

(Musings On Iraq book review Christianity in Iraq)

2015 Basra governor said he would meet demands of protesters by releasing prisoners replacing electricity

director

2017 PM Abadi acknowledged Iraqi forces had committed human rights abuses during Mosul battle but said

they were individual acts and they would be punished Said any member of security forces that committed violations during Mosul battle was either ignorant of consequences or working with IS Nothing happened

2018 Protests in Babil Baghdad Basra Activists were taking to Basra govt about demands Govt arrested and

looked for organizers in Baghdad Qadisiya Dhi Qar Najaf while media campaign to discredit them continued

(Musings On Iraq article on July 18 protests)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Security In Iraq July 8-14 2019

(Shaafaq News)

The Islamic State is in the middle of its annual spring-summer offensive Revenge of the Levant and yet little has come of it so far. Attacks have been heading downwards since the middle of June.