At the current pace of U.S. deployments to Iraq, the Pentagon may be hard-pressed by next year to provide enough reserve combat troops suitable for the mission, judging from the military services own estimates of available manpower.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/news/ci_2535489


From Information Clearing House

Iraqi security forces have been committing widespread torture and other human rights abuses while US and British authorities turn a blind eye, according to a report.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=604282
http://snipurl.com/cahs


From Information Clearing House

Iraq: Torture Continues at Hands of New Government:

Police Systematically Abusing Detainees: Iraqi security forces are committing systematic torture and other abuses against people in detention, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

http://207.44.245.159/article7820.htm

Army personnel have admitted to beating or threatening to kill Iraqi detainees and stealing money from Iraqi civilians but have not been charged with criminal conduct, according to newly released Army documents.

http://207.44.245.159/article7819.htm

Video Appears to Show U.S. Man Seized in Iraq:

"I'm not asking for any help from President Bush because I know of his selfishness and unconcern to those who've been pushed into this hellhole," he says.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=440046


From Information Clearing House

http://www.tomhayden.com/index.cgi?mode=viewone&blog=1106078708


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

24 January 2005 By Nicolas Rothwell, The Australian News

Tension, as much as anticipation, marks the run-up to Iraq's first democratic elections on Sunday, with political contenders making their last-minute pitches and insurgents pressing their violent campaign of intimidation.

On the campaign trail, a defiant appeal to nationalist sentiment was the key theme, and the prospect of a moderate Shia-dominated government determined to stress Iraqi control of national affairs solidified.

The most likely prime minister after Sunday's vote, Shia Muslim cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, gave a strong signal that his electoral grouping, the United Iraqi Alliance - known simply as the "Shia House" - would push for U.S. forces to leave the country.

Mr. al-Hakim, in comments to London's The Sunday Times, spelled out his broad position and stressed that the government he hoped to form would ask for U.S. troops to withdraw as soon as possible.

"No people in the world accept occupation and nor do we accept the continuation of American troops in Iraq," he said.

"We regard these forces to have committed many mistakes in the handling of various issues, the first and foremost being that of security, which in turn has contributed to the massacres, crimes and calamities that have taken place in Iraq against the Iraqis."

The inevitable drift of the political campaign has been in this direction.

The Iraqi mainstream is increasingly being courted by a rhetoric of national unity and rebirth, which has the inevitable effect of painting the U.S. occupiers as extraneous forces.

After almost a year of intense political activity, under the cloak of constant insurgency and violence, a new political flavour is beginning to emerge in post-Saddam Iraq.

The nationalist message now predominating in a bid to knit together the country's fractured communities bears a distinct resemblance to the language deployed by the old dictator's Ba'ath Party.


Informant: Fred Feldman

From ufpj-news