1 600 gefallene US-Soldaten im Iraq
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„Wir sind besorgt über die Zunahme an ´Fehlern´. Ich sage nicht, dass sie beabsichtigt sind. Aber sie sind Besorgnis erregend", sagte der vor kurzem ins Amt gekommene Maliki am Dienstag. Er bezog sich unter anderem auf einen jüngst bekannt gewordenen Vorfall in der westlichen Stadt Haditha, wo US-Soldaten in einem Racheakt 24 unschuldige Zivilisten getötet haben sollen. Den USA zufolge könnten die Soldaten möglicherweise wegen Mordes vor Gericht gestellt werden. „Wir werden nicht nur Antworten zu Haditha haben wollen, sondern zu jedem Einsatz, in dem es auf Grund von Fehlern zu Tötungen kam. Die Verantwortlichen werden wir dingfest machen", sagte der Ministerpräsident.
Führung mit starker Hand
Maliki hat einen Zeitrahmen von 18 Monaten ins Gespräch gebracht, in dem die Iraker die vollständige Kontrolle über die Lage im Land erlangen und damit eine Grundlage für den Abzug ausländischer Truppen bilden sollen. Er tritt dafür ein, die Milizen aufzulösen. Auch sein Kabinett will er mit starker Hand führen. Die Streitigkeiten innerhalb der Regierung verhinderten etwa zunächst die Besetzung des Verteidigungs- und des Innenministeriums. Er werde die Posten notfalls mit eigenen Wunschkandidaten besetzen, wenn sich die Koalition nicht einigen könne. Das Parlament tritt am Sonntag wieder zusammen. Die Koalition aus Schiiten, Sunniten, Kurden und säkularen Parteien habe nun eine letzte Frist, um sich auf Kandidaten zu einigen, sagte Maliki.
Die Spannungen spiegelten sich am Dienstag erneut in der Gewalt auf den Straßen des Landes wider: Bei drei Bombenanschlägen in Bagdad und Hilla wurden am Abend mindestens 46 Menschen getötet, mehr als hundert Menschen wurden verletzt. Der Irak steht am Rande eines Bürgerkriegs. Die USA, die den Irak 2003 besetzt hatten, bauen vor allem auf die neue Regierung unter Maliki, um die Lage endlich zu stabilisieren.
Washington (dpa) - Der neue irakische Botschafter in den USA, Samir Al-Sumaidaie, hat schwere Vorwürfe gegen die US- Besatzungstruppen erhoben. Es gebe viele Hinweise darauf, dass US- Soldaten wehrlose Zivilisten absichtlich getötet haben , sagte der Diplomat dem Fernsehsender CNN. Auch sein Cousin sei im Sommer 2005 bei einer Hausdurchsuchung in der Stadt Haditha grundlos erschossen worden. Bei dem Einsatz der US-Marines waren nach Berichten von US- Medien mindestens 24 irakische Zivilisten getötet worden.
Viele der Leichen seien gefesselt gewesen und wiesen Schusswunden und Spuren von Folter auf, sagten Polizeivertreter am Mittwoch. Die meisten Leichen seien seit Dienstag im Osten Bagdads gefunden worden, zwölf von ihnen an einem Ort im Stadtteil Baladijat, acht im Bezirk Sadr.
Nach einem Anschlag auf ein schiitisches Heiligtum im Februar hat die Gewalt zwischen schiitischen und sunnitischen Moslems im Irak stark zugenommen. Zudem verüben Rebellen fast täglich Anschläge, um die Regierung zu destabilisieren.
The bombs also wounded 120 people, officials said. The death toll made Tuesday one of the bloodiest days in Iraq this month, and lawmakers still had not agreed on who should lead the nation's army and police forces.
Authorities also captured a suspected terrorist who allegedly confessed to beheading hundreds of people. The operation by Iraqi forces also netted documents, cell phones and computers containing information on other wanted terrorists and Islamic extremist groups.
The worst bombing hit the outdoor market as Iraqis were doing their evening shopping in Husseiniyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. At least 25 people were killed and 65 were wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Falah Al-Mohamedawi said.
Hours earlier, a car packed with explosives blew up at a dealership in the largely Shiite city of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding 32, Capt. Muthana Khalid said.
A bomb hidden in a plastic bag also detonated outside a bakery in a religiously mixed neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, killing at least nine people and injuring 10, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.
Separately, mortar rounds fired by remote control from a car hit the third floor of the heavily guarded Interior Ministry and a nearby park, killing two government employees and wounding three other people.
A day earlier, 40 people were killed in various attacks, including a car bombing in Baghdad that killed two CBS News crewmen and seriously wounded network correspondent Kimberly Dozier. She underwent two emergency surgeries and was transferred to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, where she was reported to be in critical but stable condition.
A-P correspondent Patrick Quinn reports because of the increasing violence, people in Baghdad rarely go out at night.
CBS News reported that Dozier briefly regained consciousness on the flight to Germany. Vice President Sandy Genelius said Tuesday night that Dozier was expected to stay at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for several days.
Before Tuesday, at least 4,066 Iraqis had been killed in war-related violence this year, and at least 4,469 had been wounded, based on Associated Press reports. Those may not be complete, however.
During May, at least 871 Iraqis have been killed, surpassing the 801 killed in April. The deadliest month this year for Iraqis was March, when 1,038 were killed and 1,155 were wounded.
The deadliest day for Iraqis this month was May 7, when at least 67 civilians were killed.
Amid the surge in violence, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held another day of meetings aimed at getting Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and secular factions to agree on new interior and defense ministers.
But the key security posts remained vacant 10 days after al-Maliki's national unity government took office.
The Interior Ministry, which controls the police forces, has been promised to the Shiites. Sunni Arabs are to get the defense ministry, overseeing the army. It is hoped the balance will enable al-Maliki to move ahead with a plan for Iraqis to take over all security duties over the next 18 months so U.S.-led troops can begin withdrawing.
Al-Maliki told the British Broadcasting Corp. his government had a better chance of suppressing the violence than his predecessors because it is the nation's first permanent government since Saddam Hussein fell.
"Previous governments were either temporary or transitional. They did not receive full backing from the Iraqi people to deal with this issue," he told the BBC.
In the meantime, U.S. military commanders have moved about 1,500 combat troops from a reserve force in Kuwait into the volatile Anbar province to help authorities establish order in the insurgent hotbed stretching from Baghdad west to Syria.
The military command in Iraq described the new deployment as short-term. The plan is to keep the newest troops in Anbar no longer than four months, said one military official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the move.
The military also said a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier Tuesday southeast of Baghdad, while small-arms fire killed an American soldier Monday in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
The bodies of two Marines missing after a helicopter crash in western Iraq over the weekend also were recovered.
The AH-1 Cobra helicopter from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing was on a maintenance test flight when it went down Saturday in Anbar. The military said hostile fire was not suspected as the cause, but the crash was being investigated.
The prime minister's office said suspected terrorist Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi was captured Monday and confessed to hundreds of beheadings around the country. They released a mugshot of the balding al-Batawi wearing a white T-shirt with a nametag hanging around his neck.
Beheadings are a common tactic used by Islamic extremist groups or sectarian death squads. Al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for beheading several foreign hostages, including American Nicholas Berg.
Police also said three unidentified insurgents described as well-known aides of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were killed last week during clashes in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb also killed one police officer and wounded four others, and police found the bodies of nine shooting victims. A decapitated body was discovered floating in a river about 35 miles south of the capital.
Police Capt. Laith Mohammed, meanwhile, said a pregnant woman and her cousin were killed in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, while driving to a maternity hospital. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Separately, the U.S. military freed 204 male detainees from Abu Ghraib and other detention centers after an Iraqi-led panel recommended their releases.
To date, the board has reviewed the cases of more than 39,000 detainees, recommending more than 19,600 individuals for release, the military said.
In other violence, according to police and hospital officials:
- Three people were killed and 10 others were wounded in Ramadi, although the circumstances were unclear.
- A suicide car bomber tried to ram into an Iraqi army checkpoint in a village west of Mosul, but Iraqi soldiers opened fire, killing the driver.
- Masked gunmen killed a real estate broker, a baker and the owner of a convenience store in separate attacks in Baghdad.
But within hours, a spate of bombings killed 46 people, yet another reminder of the tough task Nuri al-Maliki faces in showing Iraqis that he can tackle violence that spares no one.
In the deadliest incident, a bomb ripped through a crowded vegetable market in the capital, killing at least 25 people and wounding 65. Nine people died in an east Baghdad bakery bombing and at least 12 died in a suicide car-bomb attack in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of the capital.
Maliki was sworn in 10 days ago at the helm of a grand coalition of majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds he hopes can avert a sectarian civil war three years after U.S. forces invaded to oust Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi officials say any premature pullout of U.S. troops could plunge Iraq into full-scale conflict, but their presence is a source of widespread resentment among Iraqis.
In an interview with Reuters, Maliki said he was growing impatient with U.S. troops' explanations that they killed civilians by mistake, and said he would launch a probe into killings in the town of Haditha last year.
"We are worried about the increase in 'mistakes'. I am not saying that they are intentional. But it is worrying for us," he said in an interview in his offices in Baghdad.
The Haditha incident is making waves in Washington, but Iraqis say they are used to such atrocities and are preoccupied by insurgent and communal violence tearing their country apart.
SECURITY POSTS
Tuesday's bombings underline the need for action to quell the violence. At the site of the Hilla blast, a teenager said: "The government has done nothing for us in three years."
Maliki said he would overrule squabbling coalition parties and present parliament with his personal nominees for the vacant jobs of defense and interior ministers if the political groups fail to agree this week.
The interim prime ministers who preceded Maliki made many empty promises that they would improve security, so Iraqis will be looking to him for a strategy that will work.
He also said he would fly to Iraq's second city of Basra on Wednesday to try to end faction fighting among Shi'ites and was ready to use force against "gangs" holding oil exports ransom.
"There's no way we can leave Basra, the gateway to Iraq, our imports and exports, at the mercy of criminal, terrorist gangs. We will use force against these gangs."
Heading Iraq's first full-term government since U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam, Maliki has talked up the prospect of foreign troops now numbering roughly 150,000 leaving Iraq.
He said a timetable of 18 months he mentioned last week for Iraqi forces assuming overall control of the whole country could be shorter if U.S.-led forces were serious about giving support and training to the new Iraqi army. Continued...
The mandatory quarterly report to Congress on Iraq depicted progress in forming U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces. But two officials who briefed reporters on the report refused to say how many Iraqi battalions could operate without U.S. help, beyond saying it was no longer zero.
At the White House, President George W. Bush accepted the credentials from the new Iraqi government's ambassador to the United States, Samir Sumaidaie, and assured him, "The United States stands ready to help the Iraqi democracy succeed."
"The terrorists can target the innocent and the weak and the vulnerable," the ambassador said, "but they will never stop us establishing a democratic and free country."
The Pentagon report said the strength of insurgents aiming to drive U.S.-led foreign forces out of Iraq "will likely remain steady throughout 2006 but that their appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007."
Some hard-line, home-grown Sunni Muslim insurgents in recent months have joined the al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, headed by Jordanian-born Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, thus "increasing the terrorists' attack options," the report said.
It said since the February 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of Iraq's four holiest Shi'ite shrines, violent groups including Shi'ite militias have increased attacks on rival sectarian groups and civilian populations.
"Sectarian strife is a significant contributor to violence, particularly against civilians," the report stated.
"Overall casualty levels rose substantially, reflecting the increase in sectarian violence following the Golden Mosque bombing," it said.
During this period, there were nearly 80 Iraqi and U.S. casualties on a daily basis, the report said.
Amid eroding U.S. public support for the war, U.S. officials have called the ability of Iraqi forces to assume responsibility for security in their own country a key factor in decisions on reducing the 130,000-strong U.S. force.
Lt. Gen. Gene Renuart, director for strategic plans and policy for the military's Joint Staff, said 71 Iraqi battalions could either take the lead in security operations with U.S. forces helping or operate and sustain themselves independently from U.S. forces.
Asked for specific numbers on how many could function independently, Renuart and Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, said that information was classified.
Reminded that he told reporters in February that the number was zero, Renuart said, "We have increased it substantially."
The report said the percentage of improvised explosive devices -- the roadside bombs known as IEDs that are the leading cause of U.S. military deaths -- that were intercepted or defused rose to 45 percent, up from 38 percent the previous six months. The percentage of car bombs similarly thwarted dropped to 15 percent from 26 percent, it said.
Iraks Regierung unterstellt US-Soldaten vorsätzliche Tötung von Zivilisten
Das Massaker in Haditha bringt die irakische Regierung gegen die USA auf. Washington habe starken Druck ausgeübt, um den Mord an Zivilisten nicht öffentlich werden zu lassen, sagte Iraks neuer Botschafter in den USA. Er beschuldigte die US-Truppe, seinen Cousin "absichtlich" getötet zu haben.
Washington - Anfang der Woche hatte US-Präsident George W. Bush den neuen Botschafter Samir al-Sumaidaie in einem kleinen Festakt im Weißen Haus willkommen geheißen. Bush betonte, er sei "zuversichtlich über die Zukunft der Freiheit im Irak". Der "Mut der Führung und die Entschlossenheit des irakischen Volkes", seien beeindruckend.
US-Soldaten in Haditha (April 2006): Bagdad erhebt schwere Vorwürfe gegen die Besatzungstruppen
Doch nur wenige Stunden nachdem er sein Beglaubigungsschreiben in Empfang genommen hatte, erhob Sumaidaie im Nachrichtensender CNN schwere Vorwürfe gegen die amerikanischen Soldaten in seinem Land: So sei sein Cousin, ein 21-jähriger Student, im Juni vergangenen Jahres bei einer Hausdurchsuchung in der Stadt Haditha grundlos erschossen worden. Zudem gebe es viele Hinweise darauf, dass US-Soldaten auch andere wehrlose Zivilisten "absichtlich getötet haben", sagte der Diplomat.
Schon lange seien ihm auch Berichte über das Massaker an irakischen Zivilisten in Haditha am 19. November 2005 bekannt gewesen. Es habe allerdings "einen starken Druck unserer Freunde" gegeben, über diesen Vorfall nicht zu sprechen, sagte Sumaidaie. Er berichtete auch über den Tod von vier jungen Irakern, die unbewaffnet in einem Auto erschossen worden seien - dabei allerdings "ist es möglich gewesen", dass US-Soldaten sich bedroht gefühlt haben könnten.
Insgesamt seien die Übergriffe und Willkürakte nicht typisch, aber sie schadeten dem Ansehen und der ehrenwerten Mission der US-Truppen immens.
Bush erfuhr durch die Medien von Vorgängen
Auch der irakische Ministerpräsident Nuri al-Maliki erhob gestern im Zusammenhang mit dem Vorgängen in Haditha schwere Vorwürfe gegen die US-Truppen im Land. "Es ist nicht zu rechtfertigen, dass eine Familie getötet wird, weil jemand gegen Terroristen kämpft", sagte al-Maliki der britischen BBC. Die Getöteten von Haditha seien "Opfer eines falschen Einsatzes", sagte Maliki. Zugleich kündigte er eine Untersuchung der Vorfälle vom 19. November durch irakische Behörden an.
"Wir sind besorgt über die Zunahme an 'Fehlern'. Ich sage nicht, dass sie beabsichtigt sind. Aber sie sind besorgniserregend", sagte Maliki zudem in einem Interview mit der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters. "Wir werden nicht nur Antworten zu Haditha haben wollen, sondern zu jedem Einsatz, in dem es aufgrund von Fehlern zu Tötungen kam. Die Verantwortlichen werden wir dingfest machen", fügte der Regierungschef hinzu.
AFP
Iraks neuen Botschafter Sumaidaie mit Bush: "US-Soldaten töteten meinen Cousin absichtlich"
Bereits am vergangenen Montag hatte der demokratische US- Abgeordnete John Murtha dem Verteidigungsministerium in Washington vorgeworfen, das mutmaßliche Massaker vertuschen zu wollen, und von "kaltblütigen" Morden gesprochen. In der amerikanischen Öffentlichkeit wird der Massenmord mittlerweile schon mit dem Massaker von My Lai verglichen, bei dem US-Soldaten 1968 in Vietnam mehr als 500 Zivilisten töteten - und danach die Aufklärung der Morde lange verhinderten. Das Pentagon hatte gestern erneut volle Aufklärung der Vorfälle von Haditha zugesichert. Sollten sich die Vorwürfe bestätigen, drohen mehreren US-Marineinfanteristen Anklagen wegen Mordes und Kriegsverbrechen.
Bush selbst will erst durch die Medien von den Vorgängen in Haditha erfahren haben. Der Sprecher des Weißen Hauses, Tony Snow, erklärte gestern in Washington, ein Reporter des Magazins "Time" habe die ersten Hinweise gegeben. Ein Sprecher des Nationalen Sicherheitsrats, Frederick Jones, bestätigte, die Zeitschrift habe die US-Truppen in Bagdad am 10. Februar auf die Vorgänge in Haditha vom November aufmerksam gemacht. Nach ersten Ermittlungen sei der Präsident informiert worden.
"Time" hatte im März von den Vorwürfen gegen US-Soldaten berichtet. Das Marineinfanteriekorps hatte zunächst erklärt, die Iraker seien durch eine am Straßenrand versteckte Bombe und bei anschließenden Kämpfen mit Aufständischen ums Leben gekommen.
Dutzende gefesselte Leichen in Bagdad gefunden
In der irakischen Hauptstadt Bagdad sind binnen 24 Stunden die Leichen von 42 getöteten Menschen gefunden worden. Viele der Leichen seien gefesselt gewesen und wiesen Schusswunden und Spuren von Folter auf, sagten heute Polizeivertreter. Die meisten Leichen seien seit Dienstag im Osten Bagdads gefunden worden, zwölf von ihnen an einem Ort im Stadtteil Baladijat, acht im Bezirk Sadr.
Im Irak sind seit Beginn des Krieges zudem mittlerweile 71 Journalisten getötet worden - genauso viele wie während des Vietnam-Kriegs. Das New Yorker Komitee zum Schutz von Journalisten erklärte gestern, weitere 26 Opfer hätten als Dolmetscher, Fahrer und Assistenten für Medienvertreter gearbeitet.
CPJ-Exekutivdirektorin Ann Cooper sagte, der Tod ausländischer Journalisten errege meist die größte Aufmerksamkeit. Allerdings handele es sich bei drei Viertel der Opfer um irakische Medienvertreter. Sie gingen das größte Risiko ein, egal ob sie für örtliche oder internationale Medien arbeiteten.
Nach einem Anschlag auf ein schiitisches Heiligtum im Februar hat die Gewalt zwischen schiitischen und sunnitischen Muslimen im Irak stark zugenommen. Zudem verüben Rebellen fast täglich Anschläge, um die Regierung zu destabilisieren.
The claim by the anonymous witness prompted Chief Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman to order an inquiry.
Defense lawyers said that if the claim was true, the court should review the entire case against Hussein and his seven co-defendants.
Hussein and his former intelligence chief, Barzan Hassan, stood in court and called for an investigation.
"We heard today a very dangerous thing, which puts the court at a crucial crossroads," said Hassan, who also is Hussein's half-brother.
He even called for U.S. officials -- whom he has repeatedly accused of interfering in the trial -- to help with the investigation.
"We trust the Americans more than Iraqis," he said.
Hussein and his former regime members are accused of killing and torturing Shiites in a crackdown launched in Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator.
Prosecutors say 148 Shiites were sentenced to death for their alleged roles in the assassination attempt and that they all were either hanged or tortured to death.
Hussein and his co-defendants could be hanged if convicted of crimes against humanity.
The witness, who testified from behind a curtain to protect him from reprisals, said he recently saw 23 of those Shiites who were sentenced to death.
'I've eaten with them'
"I've eaten with them, I've met them," the witness said. "I can take the chief prosecutor to Dujail and have lunch with them."
He gave Abdul Rahman the names of six he claimed are alive.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar Moussawi cast doubt on the witness, saying records showed the man was not a resident of Dujail as he claimed.
The development came as the defense said one of its witnesses had been killed and complained that security threats were hampering its case.
"The defense is not free to present its witnesses the way the prosecution is," one defense lawyer told Abdul Rahman.
The lawyer said some potential defense witnesses will not appear in court because they are wanted by the U.S. military or Iraqi government. He did not elaborate.
Dead witness
The witness who was killed was not identified in court. But defense lawyer Najeeb Nuaimi told The Associated Press it was Ziyad Mizhar al-Ruwayyid, a son of defendant Mizhar al-Ruwayyid who testified two weeks ago.
Ziyad was shot to death Monday by gunmen in Dujail, and another relative who testified, Mizhar's uncle, Saleh, was kidnapped, said Nuaimi, former Qatari justice minister.
Members of the Shiite Badr Brigade went to the home of another witness and threatened his family members, Nuaimi said, without identifying the witness.
"There is a big problem in Dujail," Nuaimi said. "They are going after any witnesses who are there. There is a lot of fear."
U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope a fair trial could help Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds put the atrocities of Hussein's regime behind them.
Two defense lawyers were killed early in the trial, and a defense attorney accused a spectator Monday of belonging to a Shiite militia that has threatened lawyers. The judge ejected the spectator.
The defense complaints came after Abdul Rahman chided Hussein's team for trying to expand its witness list. The judge has shown increasing impatience with witnesses having no direct connection to the case.
Abdul Rahman also refused a defense request to show DVDs as evidence, telling the lawyers to make a written request.
Hussein demands fairness
Hussein interjected that Abdul Rahman should give the defense as much time as the prosecution.
The deposed president then pointed to a relief of justice scales on the wall behind the judge and said: "In order to attain balance, to give equal justice, as the balance hanging on the wall shows, we must give the same opportunity which has been given to the prosecution witnesses to the defending witnesses."
The DVDs are part of a defense attempt to question the credibility of prosecution witness Ali al-Haidari. He testified he was arrested at age 14 in the Dujail sweep and was tortured with electrical shocks and beatings.
Under defense questioning, he said was there was no shooting attack on Hussein in Dujail on July 8, 1982 -- only celebratory shooting to mark his visit.
One DVD shows al-Haidari addressing a 2004 ceremony in Dujail and praising the attack on Hussein, the defense said.
The Arabic language television news channel Al-Arabiya aired parts of the video Tuesday, showing al-Haidari praising the shooting as an attempt by "sons of Dujail ... to kill the greatest tyrant in modern history."
The defense said Moussawi, the chief prosecutor, was at the ceremony, showing he knew about the contradiction in al-Haidari's testimony. Moussawi appeared in the footage aired by Al-Arabiya.
The defense has argued the Dujail crackdown was a legitimate response to the attempt to kill Hussein by the Shiite Dawa Party, which was backed by Iran at a time when the countries were at war.
The prosecution maintains the sweep went far beyond the actual perpetrators of the attack, and says Hussein forces arrested entire families and tortured and killed women and children in detention.
"I have been told and was assured earlier today when I called about it that when this comes out, all the details will be made available to the public, so we'll have a picture of what happened," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters Tuesday.
Military investigators strongly suspect that a small number of Marines snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb Nov. 19 in Haditha, a city on the Euphrates River northwest of Baghdad, and went on a rampage, sources told CNN.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that two investigations are being conducted -- one into the killings themselves, and the second focusing on "why didn't we know about it sooner than we knew about it."
Snow said President Bush was first briefed on the matter after a reporter for Time magazine, which first published the allegations of a massacre in March, asked the White House about it. He said Bush "is allowing the chain of command to do what it's supposed to do in the Department of Defense, which is to complete an investigation."
The Marines originally reported that 15 civilians died in a roadside bombing that also killed one Marine. A later report suggested the civilian victims may have been caught in a firefight. But senior Pentagon officials said last week that the investigation tends to support allegations that the Americans carried out an unprovoked massacre.
It was apparently the Marine's death in that roadside bombing that led to the killings. (Watch how the allegations shock the fallen Marine's family -- 2:53)
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, said the allegations, if true, could do more damage to the U.S. war effort in Iraq than the 2004 revelations that American troops had tortured prisoners at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
"We are supposed to be fighting this war for democracy and yet, something like this happens to set us back," said Murtha, a retired Marine colonel who has become an outspoken critic of the war.
He accused commanders of trying to cover up the incident, telling CNN that U.S. military officials paid the families of those killed between $1,500 and $2,500 in the aftermath. Those payments had to be authorized at high levels, he said.
"Eighty percent of the Iraqis want us out of there, and 47 percent say it's OK to kill Americans," Murtha said. "Something like this happens, they knew about it. The Iraqis knew about it. The Americans pay them, and then it goes up the chain of command and somebody stifles it."
But Murtha praised Gen. Michael Hagee, the commandant of the Marine Corps, for going to Iraq to discuss the treatment of noncombatants with his troops.
"He is over there right now, telling the troops to protect noncombatants. The rules of engagement insist you don't fire unless you're in danger, and I understand the pressure the troops are under. That is not the point. The point is we can't let this go on."
Sources have said between four and eight Marines from Kilo company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, were directly involved in the alleged massacre. But some Marines from other units knew what happened, because they helped document the aftermath.
The sources said the investigation is likely to result in murder charges against some Marines and dereliction of duty counts against others.
The commander of the battalion involved in the incident has been relieved of his command, along with two company commanders.
Iraq's new ambassador to the United States, meanwhile, maintains that U.S. Marines "intentionally" killed his cousin last June when they were conducting a sweep in Haditha, the same volatile Anbar town where the alleged massacre occurred in November.
In an interview with CNN, Samir al-Sumaidaie said the actions were a "betrayal" to the American people and the military, and he said he is "ultimately" confident that the matter will be investigated properly.
"On the whole, the United States and the military are doing an honorable job on an honorable project, which is of immense potential benefit for the United States and for us. Such crimes detract from that."
Referring to Marines, he said that "for every bad apple," there are "thousands and thousands" trying to do a job under tough conditions. (Full story)
Speaking in London, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the killings of civilians in Haditha were not justified and cautioned that coalition troops need to show more care, The Associated Press reported
"We emphasize that our forces, that multinational forces, will respect human rights, the rights of the Iraqi citizen," al-Maliki said through an interpreter, according to the AP. "It is not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists. We have to be more specific and more careful." (Full story
"Nicht typisch, aber schädlich"
Der irakische Ministerpräsident Nuri al-Maliki hat schwere Vorwürfe gegen die US-Truppen im Land erhoben. "Es ist nicht zu rechtfertigen, dass eine Familie getötet wird, weil jemand gegen Terroristen kämpft", sagte Maliki der britischen BBC.
"Wir sind besorgt über die Zunahme an 'Fehlern'. Ich sage nicht, dass sie beabsichtigt sind. Aber sie sind Besorgnis erregend", sagte Maliki der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters. Er bezog sich unter anderem auf einen jüngst bekannt gewordenen Vorfall vom 19. November in der westlichen Stadt Haditha, wo US-Soldaten in einem Racheakt 24 unschuldige Zivilisten getötet haben sollen, darunter auch Frauen und Kinder.
Cousin des Botschafters wurde erschossen
Nach Angaben des neuen irakischen Botschafters in den USA, Samir al-Sumaidaie, gibt es viele Hinweise darauf, dass US-Soldaten wehrlose Zivilisten "absichtlich getötet haben". Auch sein Cousin sei im November vergangenen Jahres in Haditha grundlos von US-Soldaten erschossen worden, sagte er dem US-Sender CNN.
Schon lange seien ihm Berichte über Haditha bekannt gewesen, so Sumaidaie. Es habe allerdings "einen starken Druck unserer Freunde" gegeben, über diesen Vorfall nicht zu sprechen. Er berichtete auch über den Tod von vier jungen Irakern, die unbewaffnet in einem Auto erschossen worden seien - dabei allerdings "ist es möglich gewesen", dass US-Soldaten sich bedroht gefühlt haben könnten. Insgesamt seien die Übergriffe und Willkürakte nicht typisch, aber sie schadeten dem Ansehen und der ehrenwerten Mission der US-Truppen immens.
Bush hatte den neuen Botschafter am Montag in einem kleinen Festakt im Weißen Haus willkommen geheißen und betont, er sei "zuversichtlich über die Zukunft der Freiheit im Irak". Der "Mut der Führung und die Entschlossenheit des irakischen Volkes", seien beeindruckend.
Am vergangenen Montag hatte der demokratische US-Abgeordnete John Murtha dem Verteidigungsministerium in Washington vorgeworfen, das Massaker vertuschen zu wollen, und von "kaltblütigen" Morden gesprochen. Das Pentagon sicherte am Dienstag erneut die volle Aufklärung der Vorfälle von Haditha zu. Sollten sich die Vorwürfe bestätigen, drohen mehreren US-Marineinfanteristen Anklagen wegen Mordes und Kriegsverbrechen.
Tausende im Irak auf der Flucht
Unterdessen berichtete eine irakische Zeitung, dass 17.129 irakische Familien in den vergangenen drei Monaten aus Angst um ihr Leben ihre Häuser verlassen haben. Das Blatt "Al-Bajina Al-Jadida" berief sich auf Untersuchungen des Ministeriums für Migration in Bagdad. Daraus geht hervor, dass die überwältigende Mehrheit der Binnenflüchtlinge Gebiete verlässt, in denen sie zur religiösen Minderheit gehören, und sich stattdessen in Städten oder Vierteln ansiedelt, in denen ihre eigene Religionsgruppe die Mehrheit stellt.
42 Leichen in Bagdad gefunden
In Bagdad wurden binnen 24 Stunden die Leichen von 42 getöteten Menschen gefunden. Viele der Leichen seien gefesselt gewesen und wiesen Schusswunden und Spuren von Folter auf, sagten Polizeivertreter am Mittwoch. Die meisten Leichen seien seit Dienstag im Osten Bagdads gefunden worden, zwölf von ihnen an einem Ort im Stadtteil Baladijat, acht im Bezirk Sadr.
Mindestens 46 Tote bei Anschlägen
Bei drei Bombenanschlägen in Bagdad und Hilla wurden am Dienstagabend mindestens 46 Menschen getötet. Mehr als hundert Menschen wurden verletzt. Wenige Stunden nacheinander detonierten Sprengsätze zunächst in der südlich von Bagdad gelegenen Stadt Hilla und dann zwei weitere in der Hauptstadt.
I don't know why it didn't register with me until now. It was only after scrolling through the tapes that we shot in Haditha last fall, and I found footage of some of the officers that had been relieved of their command, that it hit me.
I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target. (Watch a Marine's anguish over deaths -- 2:12)
I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.
I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47, basically on suicide missions, just waiting for the Marines to come through and open fire. There were civilians in the city as well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact. How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.
And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians.
I'm told that investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.
Haditha was full of IEDs. It seemed they were everywhere, like a minefield. In fact, the number of times that we were told that we were standing right on top of an IED minutes before it was found turned into a dark joke between my CNN team and me.
In fact, when we initially left to link up with the company that we were meant to be embedded with, the Humvee that I was in was hit by an IED. Another 2 inches and we would have been killed. Thankfully, no one was injured.
We missed the beginning of the operation, and ended up entering Haditha that evening. The city was empty of insurgents, or they had gone into hiding as they so often do, blending with the civilian population, waiting for U.S. and Iraqi forces to sweep through and then popping up again.
But this time, after this operation, the Marines and the Iraqi Army were not going to pull out, they were going to set up fixed bases.
Now, all these months later, while watching the tapes, I found a walk and talk with one of the company commanders that was relieved of his duty as a result of the Haditha probe.
After being hit by an IED, his men were searching the area and found a massive weapons cache in a mosque. Although it wasn't his company that we were embedded with, the Marines had taken me to the mosque so we could get footage of the cache.
And so began the e-mails and phone calls between myself and my two other CNN crew members, Jennifer Eccleston and Gabe Ramirez: Do you remember when we were talking with the battalion commander and his intel guy right outside the school and then half an hour later they found an IED in that spot? Do you remember when we were sitting chatting with them at the school? And all the other "do you remember whens."
There was also -- can you believe it? -- the allegations of the Haditha probe.
denn irak kann nur mit brutaler gewalt gehalten werden.
mal sehen, ob se auch so weit gehen, wie in vietnam...
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer spoke later in the day with Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie about U.S. military investigations into alleged killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year by U.S. Marines.
BLITZER: What do you know about what happened at Haditha?
SUMAIDAIE: Well, I heard the report very soon after the event in November from some relatives. And as it happened, my own security detail [man] comes from that neighborhood. And his home is hardly a hundred yards from the home which was hit.
And he was in touch through the Internet with his folks and neighbors. And the situation which he reported to me was that it was a cold-blooded killing.
BLITZER: By who?
SUMAIDAIE: By the Marines, I believe. Now, at that time, I dismissed the initial reports as incredible. I found it unbelievable, frankly.
BLITZER: You were at the United Nations then?
SUMAIDAIE: I was at the United Nations, and I found it unbelievable that the Marines would go in and kill members of a family who had nothing to do with combat. But I was under pressure by my friends and relatives to raise this issue.
Without any evidence in my hand, I didn't really want to make any claims that I could not substantiate. That was, remember, before any video came out. It was just word of mouth, people telling me what happened.
And I know the power of the rumor and the power of allegations without foundation. But in this case, it was more than that.
BLITZER: Well, you didn't raise it?
SUMAIDAIE: I did not raise it. I noted it. But I did not raise it. I raised it unofficially by -- through private conversations.
BLITZER: But even months before the incident in November, you lost a cousin at Haditha in a separate battle involving United States Marines.
SUMAIDAIE: Well, that was not a battle at all. Marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them.
His mother, his siblings were there. He led them into the bedroom of his father. And there he was shot.
BLITZER: Who shot him?
SUMAIDAIE: A member of the Marines.
BLITZER: Why did they shoot him?
SUMAIDAIE: Well, they said that they shot him in self-defense. I find that hard to believe because, A, he is not at all a violent -- I mean, I know the boy. He was [in] a second-year engineering course in the university. Nothing to do with violence. All his life has been studies and intellectual work.
Totally unbelievable. And, in fact, they had no weapon in the house. They had one weapon which belonged to the school where his father was a headmaster. And it had no ammunition in it. And he led them into the room to show it to them.
BLITZER: So what you're suggesting, your cousin was killed in cold blood, is that what you're saying, by United States Marines?
SUMAIDAIE: I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily. And unfortunately, the investigations that took place after that sort of took a different course and concluded that there was no unlawful killing.
I would like further investigation. I have, in fact, asked for the report of the last investigation, which was a criminal investigation, by the way.
[Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq] is aware of all the details, because he's kept on top of it. And it was he who rejected the conclusions of the first investigation. I have since asked formally for the report, but it's been nearly two months, and I have not received it.
BLITZER: Did you raise these concerns you had with the president today when you were at the White House presenting your credentials?
SUMAIDAIE: No, I did not, because I did not want to bring a personal note into a much wider brief that I have here.
BLITZER: But what I hear you saying -- and I don't want to put words in your mouth -- is there maybe, in Haditha, at least, a pattern to what happened to your nephew, what happened apparently in November when these other Marines went in?
Are there any other examples of cold-blooded murder that you are familiar with in Haditha?
SUMAIDAIE: I am familiar with at least one other killing of three youths, which happened very soon after the killing of my cousin. They were in a car. They were unarmed, I believe. And they were shot.
Now, in that case, there could be possibly [an] excuse or explanation that the Marines were afraid. They were approaching them too fast, or whatever. But the details as they were related to me were such that there was no possibility of misunderstanding.
But in all these situations, you know, you have the word of the community, people around, civilians around -- and you have the word of the individuals in the Marines. ...
When it comes to comparing these two sources, I mean, if my uncle, whom I have known all my life since childhood, and I know he would not make up stories, and I know he would not lie, and I know what is at stake is the life of his grandson, then, you know, I know which word to take.
BLITZER: Do you have confidence the U.S. military will do a thorough investigation?
SUMAIDAIE: Ultimately, possibly, yes. But in situations like this, the ramifications are so profound that they -- they would initially take the attitude that they hope this would go away.
If it can be swept under the rug, it would. But when -- when it goes up higher in the hierarchy, then there are people who recognize the potential damage of cover-up, and there is a better possibility of it being opened up.
BLITZER: So you're concerned there could be a cover-up?
SUMAIDAIE: There is always a concern against cover-up. But let me say this, Wolf, events like this, Abu Ghraib, killing, intentional killing like this, ... as I said in my statement at the time in July of last year, ... are a betrayal to the American people. They're a betrayal to what the Marines are doing and what the American Army is doing.
On the whole, the United States and the military are doing an honorable job on an honorable project, which is of immense potential benefit for the United States and for us. Such crimes detract from that.
The focus in all the international media has been on these things, not on the good things. And I do believe that for every bad apple, bad Marine, there are thousands and thousands of good -- good ones doing [a] good job, doing the best they can under difficult circumstances.
However, it is absolutely imperative that we remove the bad apples and we expose them and we don't try to cover them up.
Ali Dschaafar vom Sender "Irakija" sei beim Verlassen seines Hauses getötet worden, sagten Polizeivertreter. Journalisten des Senders gerieten bereits mehrfach ins Visier von Rebellen, die die US-gestützte Regierung stürzen wollen. Am Montag wurden zwei Mitarbeiter des US-Fernsehsenders CBS bei einem Bombenanschlag im Irak getötet. Eine Korrespondentin des Senders wurde schwer verletzt. Die Reporter hatten US-Soldaten begleitet, als diese angegriffen wurden. Seit der US-Invasion im Irak sind mehr als 70 Journalisten in dem Golfstaat getötet worden, die meisten davon Iraker. Nach Einschätzung von Journalistenverbänden sind dies etwa so viel wie im gesamten Zweiten Weltkrieg
Die ölreiche Stadt steht im Zentrum eines Machtkampfes zwischen verschiedenen Schiiten-Gruppen, der Maliki zufolge die Öl-Exporte des Landes bedroht.
"Wir werden mit harter Hand gegen die Anführer der Banden vorgehen, die die Sicherheit beeinträchtigen", sagte Maliki - selbst Schiit - am Mittwoch bei einem Besuch Basras im staatlichen Fernsehen. Die Behörden würden einen Notfall-Plan entwerfen, um die Sicherheit in der zweitgrößten Stadt des Landes wieder herzustellen.
Maliki hatte seinen Besuch in Basra gegenüber der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters bereits am Dienstag angekündigt und auch Gewaltanwendung im Kampf gegen die Banden, die unter anderem Ölexporte als Druckmittel einsetzen, in Aussicht gestellt. Die rivalisierenden Schiitengruppen kämpfen um Beteiligung an der örtlichen Verwaltung, die nach dem Sturz Saddam Husseins von den Sunniten an die Schiiten überging.
The findings of the investigation contradicted Marines' claims that the civilians were victims of a roadside bomb, the newspaper said.
The Times report, citing an unidentified senior military official in Iraq, said the investigation in February and March led by Col. Gregory Watt, an Army officer in Baghdad, uncovered death certificates showing the Iraqis were shot mostly in the head and chest.
The three-week probe was the first official investigation into the killings.
"There were enough inconsistencies that things didn't add up," the senior official was quoted as saying by the Times.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had been briefed on the conclusion of Watt's preliminary investigation, the newspaper said. The findings have not been made public.
In an interview with CNN, new Iraqi ambassador to the United States Samir al-Sumaidaie said there appeared to have been other killings of civilians by Marines in Haditha, where some of his family lives.
The ambassador said Marines shot and killed his cousin during a house-to-house search several months before the November incident.
"I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily," al-Sumaidaie said.
"They were in a car, they were unarmed, I believe, and they were shot."
Watt's investigation also reviewed cash payments totaling $38,000 made within weeks of the November shootings to families of victims, The New York Times said.
In an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday, Maj. Dana Hyatt said his superiors told him to compensate the relatives of 15 victims, but the other dead civilians had been determined to have committed hostile acts, leaving their families ineligible for compensation.
The U.S. military sometimes pays compensation to relatives of civilian victims.
Residents of Haditha, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad in an area that has seen much activity by Sunni Arab insurgents, have told Reuters that U.S. Marines attacked houses after their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb.
On November 20, U.S. Marines spokesman Captain Jeffrey Pool issued a statement saying that, on the previous day, a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians and a Marine. In a later gunbattle, U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed eight insurgents, he added.
U.S. military officials have since confirmed to Reuters that that version of the events of November 19 was wrong and that the 15 civilians were not killed by the blast but were shot dead.
Al-Maliki is on a visit to the oil-rich city, which had been relatively calm since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Basra is under the control of the British military, part of the U.S.-led coalition.
In the past month, nine British soldiers have died in Basra -- five of them in a May 6 helicopter crash which sparked fighting between Iraqis and British troops.
Hospital officials said at least four Iraqis died in the ensuing clashes.
Basra is a mostly Shiite Muslim city about 245 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad.
US-Soldaten belastet
Ein Untersuchungsbericht des US-Militärs zu dem mutmaßlichen Massaker an 24 Zivilisten im nordirakischen Haditha belastet der "New York Times" zufolge die beteiligten Soldaten schwer.
Der Bericht komme zu dem Schluss, dass es sich bei der Tat im November vergangenen Jahres offenbar um einen unprovozierten Angriff der US-Truppen gehandelt habe, schreibt das Blatt. Die Zivilisten seien allesamt erschossen worden und wiesen Schusswunden am Kopf oder am Oberkörper auf. Dies widerspricht der bisherigen Darstellung der US-Soldaten, wonach die Menschen bei der Detonation einer am Straßenrand versteckten Bombe ums Leben gekommen sind. Die Zeitung berief sich auf einen hochrangigen US-Armeevertreter, dem die Untersuchungsergebnisse des Militärs zugetragen worden seien. Die meisten der Opfer waren Frauen und Kinder. Die dreiwöchigen internen Ermittlungen von Februar und März waren die ersten im Zusammenhang mit diesem Vorfall. Unbestätigten Berichten zufolge sollen die Soldaten "regelrecht ausgerastet" sein, nachdem ein Kamerad von ihnen durch eine Bombenexplosion getötet worden war. Nach den Worten irakischer Augenzeugen stürmten die US-Marines daraufhin in die umliegenden Häuser und erschossen wahllos Männer, Frauen und Kinder. US-Unteroffizier James Crossan, der zu Beginn der Vorfälle in Haditha am 19. November 2005 bei der Explosion einer Bombe verletzt worden war, schilderte in Fernsehinterviews die Wut seiner Kameraden an diesem Tag. Nach der Explosion des Sprengsatzes am Straßenrand hätten "wohl einige die Kontrolle verloren", so Crossan. Deshalb sei es "zu schlechten Entscheidungen" der US-Militärs gekommen.
Offiziell ist bislang nichts von den Untersuchungsergebnissen nach außen gedrungen. Die Ergebnisse der Pentagon-Untersuchung werden nach Angaben des Weißen Hauses aber bald der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert. Dies versicherte der Sprecher des Weißen Hauses, Tony Snow.
Wie die New York Times berichtete, zahlte die US-Armee den Angehörigen der Opfer wenige Wochen nach dem Vorfall insgesamt rund 38.000 Dollar als Entschädigungn.
Cousin des Botschafters wurde erschossen
Der irakische Ministerpräsident Nuri al-Maliki erhob schwere Vorwürfe gegen die US-Truppen. "Es ist nicht zu rechtfertigen, dass eine Familie getötet wird, weil jemand gegen Terroristen kämpft", sagte Maliki. "Wir sind besorgt über die Zunahme an 'Fehlern'. Ich sage nicht, dass sie beabsichtigt sind. Aber sie sind Besorgnis erregend", sagte Maliki.
Nach Angaben des neuen irakischen Botschafters in den USA, Samir al-Sumaidaie, wurde auch sein Cousin im November vergangenen Jahres in Haditha grundlos von US-Soldaten erschossen. Schon lange seien ihm Berichte über Haditha bekannt gewesen, so Sumaidaie. Es habe allerdings "einen starken Druck unserer Freunde" gegeben, über diesen Vorfall nicht zu sprechen. Er berichtete auch über den Tod von vier jungen Irakern, die unbewaffnet in einem Auto erschossen worden seien - dabei allerdings "ist es möglich gewesen", dass US-Soldaten sich bedroht gefühlt haben könnten. Insgesamt seien die Übergriffe und Willkürakte nicht typisch, aber sie schadeten dem Ansehen und der ehrenwerten Mission der US-Truppen immens.
Vertuschung?
Am vergangenen Montag hatte der demokratische US-Abgeordnete John Murtha dem Verteidigungsministerium in Washington vorgeworfen, das Massaker vertuschen zu wollen, und von "kaltblütigen" Morden gesprochen. Das Pentagon sicherte am Dienstag erneut die volle Aufklärung der Vorfälle von Haditha zu. Sollten sich die Vorwürfe bestätigen, drohen mehreren US-Marineinfanteristen Anklagen wegen Mordes und Kriegsverbrechen.
Nicht nur die Vorgänge an sich, sondern auch die mögliche Vertuschung des Geschehens in Haditha soll deshalb nun untersucht werden. Es wird nicht ausgeschlossen, dass dies die höchsten Kreise des US-Militärs betreffen könnte. Wenn die Ergebnisse in den kommenden Wochen veröffentlicht werden, rechnen viele "mit dem Schlimmsten".
Bush is facing mounting pressure over his repetitive failures in Iraq and Afghanistan in and outside the United States.
Americans’ anger over mounting casualties in Iraq coupled with doubts about long-term consequences of their President’s decision to stay the course in Iraq continue to rise, dealing a major blow to Bush’s plans to proceed with his wars agenda under the guise of fighting terrorism.
Bush’s approval ratings sank to a new low, reaching 33 percent, according to ABC News/Washington Post poll. The poll results also showed that most Americans now disapprove of the way he's handled the war on Iraq, part of his “war on terror” campaign.
But the American President seems persistent not to change his policies, especially regarding a long stay of the U.S military in Iraq.
If this war on terrorism is a "good war," why would the Bush admin. spend such huge amounts of money on PR campaigns to get more support over his “mission” to rid the world of terrorism? Why is media manipulation needed if Bush's war on terrorism is credible and achieves its targeted goals.
It was disclosed last year that the U.S. military secretly paid Iraqi journalists to publish fake stories written by American troops in favour of the occupation, part of an information offensive in Iraq aimed at boosting the image of the U.S. “liberating mission” in the country, part of Bush’s “war on terrorism”, which many experts say has brought more turmoil and threats to the world.
Last year’s reports about the Bush administration’s disdainful act stated that the Pentagon infiltrated news agencies to run articles written by U.S. military "information operations" troops and translated into Arabic.
The allegations were confirmed by U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
The U.S. is not winning in Iraq as Bush claims on every occasion. On the contrary, losing the battle is what forced the Bush administration spend huge amounts of money in cheap and illegal ways to win support over the war.
In contrast to repetitive claims by the U.S. President about the great success America’s achieving in Iraq, many of Bush's administration members started seeing that the main reason behind the notable drop in Bush's approval ratings is his failure in Iraq.
Sixty-two percent of the U.S. public now believes that the costs of the war versus the benefits to the U.S., according to ABC News/Washington Post poll, which also showed that 50 percent of Americans feel that the war in Iraq is not worth fighting.
The poll also found that 59% of Americans think that the U.S. President’s decision to launch a war on Iraq was a mistake.
Another indicator that the U.S. is losing ground in Iraq, is the surge of violence many Iraqi cities had been witnessing, specially since February 22 attack on Samarra’s holy Shia Shrine.
A wave of sectarian strife and recrimination swept Iraq ever since the attack on the Shia holy mosque, which almost totally damaged its dome.
But analysts suggest that the U.S. is in fact instigating such tensions to keep the violence going and thus use it as a key justification for why its troops need to “stay the course”- to protect the country from falling into chaos.
That was confirmed yesterday by news reports stating that the U.S. Department of Defense is sending its main reserve force of 3,500 soldiers, currently stationed in Kuwait, to western Iraq to end the surge of violence in Anbar province.
The announcement was made Monday, which witnessed deadly attacks in Iraq, with at least 60 people killed, mostly in car bomb explosions around the country.
As former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter predicted before, "The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated.”
The former UN weapons inspector said once that the United States does not have the military capability to take over Baghdad "and will lose the war against Iraq."
“It is a war we can not win."
"We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable".
Only time will tell if the U.S. will be able to admit its defeat and withdraw from Iraq, or insist on staying and spend more millions of U.S. taxpayers’ money on an unjustified and illegal war.
It was Bush's first public comment on allegations that Marines killed about two dozen unarmed Iraqis in the western city of Haditha last November.
Bush said he had discussed Haditha with Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "He's a proud Marine. And nobody is more concerned about these allegations than the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is full of honorable people who understand the rules of war."
"If in fact these allegations are true," Bush said, "the Marine Corps will work hard to make sure that that culture - that proud culture - will be reinforced. And that those who violated the law, if they did, will be punished."
The president was asked about the Iraq allegations during an Oval Office photo opportunity with the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.
"I am troubled by the initial news stories," Bush said. "I'm mindful that there's a thorough investigation going on. If in fact, laws were broken, there will be punishment."
The killings at Haditha, a city that has been plagued by insurgents, came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine. Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and decorated war veteran who has been briefed by military officials, has said Marines shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into two homes and shot others.
Military investigators have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines, a senior defense official said last week.
If confirmed as unjustified killings, the episode could be the most serious case of criminal misconduct by U.S. troops during three years of combat in Iraq. Until now the most infamous occurrence was the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse involving Army soldiers, which came to light in April 2004 and which Bush said he considered to be the worst U.S. mistake of the entire war.
Once the military investigation is completed, perhaps in June, it will be up to a senior Marine commander in Iraq to decide whether to press charges of murder or other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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