Bush contradicts Pentagon; Sistani upset, wanted timetable for withdrawal

No civil war in Iraq, insists Bush - but Pentagon differs

While 68 Iraqis have died in two days, the President talks up military success with an eye on the mid-term elections. Meanwhile, defence chiefs are ever more fearful of another Vietnam

Paul Harris in New York
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer

President Bush yesterday denied that Iraq was plunging into civil war, just a day after the Pentagon painted a bloody picture of a nation caught in a spiral of increasing violence.

more...

I no longer have power to save Iraq from civil war, warns Shia leader

By Gethin Chamberlain and Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad
(Filed: 03/09/2006)

The most influential moderate Shia leader in Iraq has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers, admitting that there is nothing he can do to prevent the country sliding towards civil war.

Aides say Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is angry and disappointed that Shias are ignoring his calls for calm and are switching their allegiance in their thousands to more militant groups which promise protection from Sunni violence and revenge for attacks.

Snip...

It is a devastating blow to the remaining hopes for a peaceful solution in Iraq and spells trouble for British forces, who are based in and around the Shia stronghold of Basra.

Snip...

He said a series of snubs had contributed to Ayatollah al-Sistani's decision. "He asked the politicians to ask the Americans to make a timetable for leaving but they disappointed him," he said. "After the war, the politicians were visiting him every month. If they wanted to do something, they visited him. But no one has visited him for two or three months. He is very angry that this is happening now. He sees this as very bad."


http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/008628.php

"We continued to track him down and then he moved to north of Baquba in mid-June," al-Rubaie said. "He was arrested without any harm to civilians."

Al-Saeedi was arrested as he was hiding in a residential building, the security adviser said, accusing the terror suspect of trying to use "children and women as human shields," al-Rubaie said, adding that no casualties occurred during the arrest.

"He was hiding in a building used by families. He wanted to use children and women as human shields," Rubaie said.

Working on intelligence gained after the death of Zarqawi, Hamed al-Saeedi was tracked down to a house in Tikrit, where he was reportedly found hiding behind women and children. Al-Saeedi was captured by Iraqi Forces, without a shot being fired.

George Will: So Maybe Iraq War IS All About Oil?

By E&P Staff

Published: September 02, 2006 11:55 PM ET

NEW YORK Writing in The Washington Post on Sunday, columnist George Will suggests that, if it wasn't at the beginning, the Iraq war is now all about oil.

Critics of the war charged even before it started that the chief motivation for the U.S. attack was to control Iraq's vast oil reserves. Evidence for that was always shaky, but in recent days some Republicans have openly stated, or hinted, that maybe it has come down to that, in the end. "Imagine a failed state on the second-largest oil reserves in the world," Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chief, said on "Meet the Press" last week.

Now Will, at the conclusion of an interview with longtime powerful Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), bolsters this idea again.

He had started the column recalling how President Eisenhower had recognized that the Korean war was a statemate in 1952 and then laid the groundwork for its ending. Would this happen again soon in Iraq?

"George W. Bush might yet face an 'Eisenhower moment' regarding Iraq," Will decides. "But not yet, in the opinion of Sen. John Warner, the five-term Virginia Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee."

And why is that? Will, who has raised questions about the war in recent months, declares: "Warner defines the U.S. objective in Iraq not in terms of a glittering achievement, democracy, but as avoiding something appalling -- the Iraqi oil fields in jihadists' hands. Regarding Iraq, there will not soon be an Eisenhower moment."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003086936

Gunmen kill aide of Iraqi Shiite cleric

Sun Sep 3, 7:01 AM ET

AMARA, Iraq (AFP) - Gunmen have killed a representative of revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the southern Iraqi city of Amara.

Sheikh Hassan Mohammed Mahdi al-Jawadi, 56, was gunned down in front of his office by gunmen in a car, a police officer from Imara, in Misan province, said Sunday.

He said gunmen had also killed Jawadi's son, who was a policeman, two weeks ago in a similar attack.

Jawadi's killing comes a day after Sistani warned Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of the dangers Iraq faced from militias if his fledgling government failed to curb the raging sectarian violence.

Maliki met Sistani in the holy city of Najaf following massive killings of Shiites last week in and around Baghdad.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060903/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestsistani_060903110155

Kurdish leader threatens Iraq secession

By YAHYA BARZANJI, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago

Snip...

"If we want to separate, we will do it, without hesitation or fears," Barzani, president of the Kurdish region, said during an address to parliament.

He tempered his comments slightly by saying that Kurdish leaders already have voted to remain in a united Iraq. But government leaders in Baghdad fear the Kurds are pushing for independence from the rest of Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a terse statement Sunday.

"The current Iraqi flag is the only one which must be hoisted on each bit of Iraq's land until a decision is adopted by the parliament according to the constitution," the statement from his office said.

President Jalal Talabani's office on Sunday denounced the flap over the flag as an "exaggerated noise."

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060903/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_kurds_flag_2