Today in Iraq

War News for Friday, February 18, 2005 Bring ‘em on: Thirty Iraqis killed by bomb at mosque in southern Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Thirteen Iraqis killed in bombing at western Baghdad mosque. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed by small arms fire in Mosul. Bring ‘em on: One US soildier killed, three wounded by Mosul car bomb. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi policemen killed, for wounded in two incidents in Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi politician kidnapped near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi politician kidnapped near Mosul pleads for his life on videotape. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents kidnap, execute sons of Najaf police chief. Two Indonesian television journalists missing near Ramadi. Spinning bad news. “’We've tracked the number of attacks per day and what they can do is 50 to 60 attacks that they are able to conduct countrywide, with spikes. And that seems to be their capacity,’ Air Force Gen. Richard Myers told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Myers, who testified with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, characterized the insurgency fighting some 150,000 U.S. forces in Iraq as ‘a limited capacity.’" “NUMBERS: In the first 16 days of February, there were 14 non-combat deaths, compared with 16 combat deaths. January's non-hostile death toll was the highest for any month of the war, with 51, including the Jan. 26 helicopter crash that killed 31.” Torture policy. “A cache of documents disclosed Thursday provides several instances of prisoner abuse by American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq that appeared to have been investigated only briefly. The documents, released by the American Civil Liberties Union, include one file in which an Iraqi detainee asserted that Americans in civilian clothing beat him repeatedly, dislocated his shoulder, stepped on his nose until it broke, choked him with a rope and hit him in the leg with a bat. Medical reports in the file confirmed the broken nose and fractured leg.” Support the troops! “Hundreds of Army Reserve and National Guard troops returning home after being wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone months without pay or medical benefits they were entitled to receive, military officials and government auditors said Thursday. Because of a bureaucratic mistake, about 1,000 reservists and Guard members were removed from the active-duty rolls once home, even though their wounds entitled them to extended care, according to a Government Accountability Office study released Thursday.” Neo-cons take over US intelligence. “President Bush nominated John D. Negroponte as the first director of national intelligence today, a post intended to take charge of American intelligence agencies at a crucial juncture as they try to recover from embarrassing missteps on Iraq and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” Somehow, I doubt if this was the intent of the 911 Commission. Democratic Veteran has a great rant today about the conservative chickenhawks who diss American veterans. Commentary Opinion: “The administration is trying to have it both ways in its so-called war on terror. It claims to be fighting for freedom, democracy and the rule of law, and it condemns barbaric behavior whenever it is committed by someone else. At the same time, it is engaged in its own barbaric behavior, while going out of its way to keep that behavior concealed from the American public and the world at large. The man grabbed at Kennedy Airport and thrown by American officials into a Syrian nightmare was Maher Arar, a 34-year-old native of Syria who emigrated to Canada as a teenager. No one, not even the Syrians who tortured him, have been able to present any evidence linking him to terrorism.” Casualty Reports Local story: Oregon soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: South Carolina soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Florida soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Two Mississippi Guardsmen die in Iraq. Local story: Missouri soldier killed in Iraq.