You are herecontent / Planning for post-Saddam regime change began as early as October 2001
Planning for post-Saddam regime change began as early as October 2001
National Security Archive Update, August 17, 2005
State Department experts warned CENTCOM before Iraq war about lack of plans for post-war Iraq security
Planning for post-Saddam regime change began as early as October 2001
Washington, D.C., August 17, 2005: Newly declassified State Department documents show that government experts warned the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in early 2003 about "serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance," well before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
In a February 7, 2003, memo to Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, three senior Department officials noted CENTCOM's "focus on its primary military objectives and its reluctance to take on 'policing' roles," but warned that "a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally." The memo adds "We have raised these issues with top CENTCOM officials."
By contrast, a December 2003 report to Congress, also released by the State Department, offers a relatively rosy picture of the security situation, saying U.S. forces are "increasingly successful in preventing planned hostile attacks; and in capturing former regime loyalists, would-be terrorists and planners; and seizing weapons caches." The document acknowledges that "Challenges remain."
Since then, 1,393 U.S. military fatalities have been recorded in Iraq, including two on the day the report went to Congress.
The new documents, released this month to the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, also provide more evidence on when the Bush administration began planning for regime change in Iraq -- as early as October 2001.
The declassified records relate mainly to the so-called "Future of Iraq Project," an effort, initially run by the State Department then by the Pentagon, to plan for the transition to a new regime after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. They provide detail on each of the working groups and give the starting date for planning as October 2001.
Entire sections of a Powerpoint presentation the State Department prepared on November 1, 2002 -- including those covering "What We Have Learned So Far" and "Implications for the Real Future of Iraq" -- have been censored as still-classified information.
Please follow the link below for more on the new documents:
________________________________________________________
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.
- Login to post comments
-
- Email this page
- Printer-friendly version
Found in local Iraq Newspaper
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2005-08-17 15:18.
17/08/2005 22:11:26 News from Al-Mendhar - www.almendhar.com
Children of New Iraq and the Disgusting Sex Trade
The Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), for humanitarian affairs, which is working in cooperation with the United Nations, has issued a report on the phenomenon of the sexual abuse of children in the new American Iraq.
According to the report, hundreds of families in Iraq have found the trade of homosexuality with children as a means of living, under the blockage of horizons and the deterioration of the security conditions in Iraq.
The report tells the story of an Iraqi woman, called Om Zakaria, whose husband has been disabled from work, due to illness. She does not see any harm in handing her two sons, 13 and 14, to a gang that trades in the field of children's sex inside Iraq. She considered that the gang has done her a favor and that she is proud of her two sons.
Om Zakaria said, "We are a poor family. My husband can work no more. Three months ago the head of a gang working in this field came to my house. He offered us money in case we allowed our sons to work with him. Thanks to him, now we have a good income." She continued, "Some people might view the matter as a shock, but at least we can eat and I am proud of my two sons."
The report states various cases and interviews the children who are sexually abused. Some of them work upon the consent of their families and others are scared of murder at the hands of the father or relatives, in case they found out their situation and state.
The report refers to some children who are forces to sell their flesh for the seekers of the taboo joy. It also talks about some families who have forbidden their children from going to school for fear of falling into the trap of the criminal gangs of sex.
The report quotes an interview with a distinguished head of one of those gangs, who is not embarrassed to speak frankly of the nature of his work, considering that what his gang offers is similar to any other business.
A former Un study stated that a quarter of Iraqi children are suffering from some sort of malnutrition, while one tenth of Iraqi children are suffering from a type of hunger.
On the other hand, on May 12, in the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, the international organization for controlling drug trafficking announced that Iraq is about to be a transit station for transporting the heroine, which is manufactured in Afghanistan, to Europe through Iran. In the new democratic federal American Iraq, mercenaries from all over the world receive more than 1000 dollars a day in return for executing security missions, that were necessitated by the conditions resulting from the occupation, while there are successive reports on administrative corruption and organized looting of everything in the slaughtered Iraq, which became a Mecca and refuge for criminals, gangs, murderers and drug dealers. What arouses astonishment, wonder and grief is the scarcity, if not non-existence, of the interested voices that are concerned about Iraqi children; whether politicians or references that have concluded a truce with the occupation.
The parties that came through the tanks of the occupation are carrying burdens that are remote from the burdens of the oppressed Iraqi citizens. Some are moving with breeder-crossing remote control from all directions, especially the eastern side, carrying their agendas and foreign contacts. Abdel Aziz Al Hakim, for example, is calling for giving Iran 100 billion dollars as compensations, while hunger and need force an Iraqi woman to sell her sons at the slaves' market.
Al Ja'fari is launching statements praising the Kuwaiti situation after the borders' crisis with it. He is grateful for their favor and the white hands of the Kuwaiti government, which is receiving the billions of Iraqi compensations, with great hunger, and is submitting new requests to the UN for huge compensations, due to the environmental damages that the Iraqi occupation has caused Kuwait, despite the act that Iraq is now illegitimately occupied for two years, which has destroyed Iraqi lands, people, health, industry and infrastructure, in which Kuwait had an official effective participation. On the other hand, hunger, oppression, disenlightenment and humiliation is greatly spreading in Iraq.
I was expecting Iraqi references, on top of which is Al Sestani, to speak about the suffering of Iraqis, and the torture and insults that they suffered and are still suffering from, in Abu Gharib, Buka and the known and unknown detention camps. I was expecting the spiritual leaders to protest against the situation in which the occupation and its Iraqi agents have led Iraqis to what they are currently suffering from; of oppression and huger, to the extent that a woman sells the flesh and chastity of her children to fight the merciless hunger.
The references that have concluded a truce with the occupation issue religious opinions that urge people for the elections on the American agenda. They request people to save in electricity and then bless the federation, or in clearer words "the division and fragmentation for Iraq. What did the world do for the hunger of Iraqi children, the trade in their flesh and chastity and fooling with their present and destroying their future? Where are the Arab and Islamic countries and those in charge, whom we heard a lot of praise for that reminded us of the early era of Islam with regard to their responsibility for the nation's burdens? How do they rest with billions of dollars in their safes, while Iraqi children are hungry and wake up in despair, while the Prophet Mohamed, PBUH, says "He is not a believer, who sleeps full while his knows that his neighbor is hungry."
Middle East Online
From CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/19/powell.un/index.html
I just read this article. They need to post it.