U.S. troops in Iraq adopt new role

By John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON (March 10, 2010) -- Some of the 98,000 U.S. military forces in Iraq already have made the transition from security to stability operations ahead of the September deadline, American military commanders said.

In accordance with an agreement brokered between Baghdad and Washington, the drawdown to 50,000 U.S. troops before September will happen as the American mission shifts from its current role as a partner of Iraqi security forces to primarily one of training and advising.

But on the heels of what has been touted as a "historic" parliamentary election in Iraq this week -- months before the drawdown milestone -- U.S. forces in some instances have begun to change missions, said Maj. Gen. Terry A. Wolff, commander of U.S. Division Central.

"We're pretty close to what that will look like already," Wolff, whose area of operations includes Baghdad and the western Iraqi province of Anbar, told Pentagon reporters in a news conference.

What allows U.S. forces to pivot from accompanying Iraqi units in joint operations and providing aerial and intelligence support upon request to a role that centers on training, advising and assisting is the evolution of Iraq's indigenous forces, the general said.

Since his previous rotation in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, Wolff said, Iraqi security forces have passed tests of their quality "with flying colors." He cited security during the March 7 election in which attacks reportedly killed some 38 people across the country but failed to close any polling sites or dissuade any of the estimated 12 million Iraqis -- about 62 percent of the electorate -- who cast ballots.

"I worked helping to train the [Iraqi security forces] on my last rotation," Wolff recalled. "It was an army of about 110,000. Well, it's grown to about double that. It was a police of barely 150,000; it's nearly triple that. And so the Iraqi security forces demonstrated on Sunday that they're up to the task".

"I'm pretty confident that they can continue to secure the government of Iraq and the Iraqi people," he continued. "There's no doubt in my mind that they can do that exceptionally well. And as the next government settles in, they're more than up to the task, and they demonstrated that".

Asked about the Iraqi army's progress since reports in 2006 of disloyalty, unreliability and a lack of professionalism in the ranks, one defense official said the Iraqi forces have "matured beyond our wildest expectations" - echoing the resilience Wolff described today.

"I kind of liken them sometimes to a boxer," he said. "They're very robust, they take a jab, once in while they take a body blow, but they rarely get knocked down any more".

Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the United States already has shifted from performing counterinsurgency operations to taking on the task of training, advising, enabling and partnering with Iraqi forces.

"I believe that's really what we're doing today. We are not doing any independent operations any more," he said at the Army and Navy Club here last month. "We are doing counterterrorism operations, but we're really not even doing those independently. All our highest-end counterterrorism operations are done in complete coordination with Iraqi security forces, and with Iraqi security forces".

Asked today if a reduced combat role of American troops was tantamount to a reduction in overall productivity in Iraq, Wolff sought to dispel such impressions.

"There are aggressive operations every day and every evening to deal with terrorists and extremists that try to have an impact on the Iraqi people," he said. "So it's not as if we're all sitting on our operating bases and doing nothing".

"There's this belief at times that no one's doing anything; that 96,000 Soldiers are just kind of waiting for something to happen," he continued. "We are not in the observe-and-write-about-it mode. We are effectively out there doing things every single day".

U.S. Army

Kidnapped female medical workers freed

Two members of the French NGO Doctors Without Borders medical team in Haiti were freed after being kidnapped last Friday in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Their capture was initially kept secret so as not to jeopardise negotiations

By News Wires

AFP - Two European women aid workers were kidnapped in Haiti last week but freed on Thursday, their organization, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) told AFP.

   

"We are immensely relieved," spokesman Michel Peremans said, adding that both women -- whose nationalities he would not give -- were "safe and sound".

   

Peremans said the two were grabbed Friday in what was the first kidnapping of foreign aid staff since the January 12 earthquke in Haiti that killed more than 220,000 people and left 1.3 million people homeless.

   

He said the news had been kept secret until now so as not to "complicate" negotiations to free the women, whose lives had been "in danger".

   

"We confirm that there was a kidnapping," he said. The two women "were freed today".

   

Peremans would not go into details about the identities of the women, nor of their abductors.

   

A Swiss media outlet, TSRinfo.ch, however, reported that one of women was Belgian and the other was Czech, updating information that said both worked for the Swiss branch of MSF.

   

TSRinfo said that the two were grabbed, with their Haitian driver, in the Petionville area of the city, where many aid groups are located.

   

The driver was freed after a short time and raised the alarm, TSRinfo said.

   

It was impossible to contact the Belgian embassy and the honorary Czech consulate for confirmation.

   

Peremans would not say if MSF had paid the kidnappers, but stressed that "it is not our policy to pay ransoms".

   

He also noted that MSF had been working in Haiti for years before January's disaster.

   

The organization has 400 foreign employees and 3,000 Haitians working for it in the country.

   

"We will see how we can keep working," Peremans said, adding that the security of MSF workers was of paramount importance.

   

"It's very important for us. We want to keep working in Haiti," he said.

   

Although MSF would not speak about the kidnappers, Haitian police and foreign security contractors have spoken of the danger posed by thousands of hardened criminals who escaped the main prison in the capital during the earthquake.

   

Most of them are believed to be hiding out in Cite Soleil, a city slum devastated by the quake, where police and UN peacekeepers struggle to impose the law.

   

The UN police said it had not been aware of the abductions - explained by the fact that many of the aid groups in Haiti hire their own security details.

France24

Myanmar allows Suu Kyi party to open offices

This move comes as international anger over new laws barring the opposition icon from elections

France Press

Myanmar's junta has allowed the party of Aung San Suu Kyi to reopen offices closed since 2003 as international anger grew yesterday over new laws barring the opposition icon from elections this year. The U.S. slammed the legislation as a "mockery," while U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon appealed to Myanmar's military regime to free Suu Kyi and let her take part in the country's first polls in two decades.

Under the laws enacted Monday, Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own National League for Democracy (NLD) and is prevented from standing in the elections, expected in October or November.

In a surprise move, Myanmar's rulers permitted the reopening of around 300 NLD offices which were shut after an attack by a pro-junta mob on Suu Kyi's motorcade in May 2003 which left dozens of people dead. "They have not yet informed our party headquarters but the authorities have informed regional and divisional offices that they can reopen," NLD spokesman Nyan Win said yesterday.

He said that around 100 of the offices had already reopened and that the rest would follow suit.

Details of the five election laws passed by the junta have been released in state media during the past week. The latest law to be published officially annuls the result of the country's last elections in 1990. The NLD won those polls by a landslide but the junta never allowed the party to take power.

"The result of the multi-party democracy elections, held under a deleted law, is automatically abolished as it is not in accordance with the constitution," said the law.

The 64-year-old Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years since those elections. She was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a U.S. man swam to her lakeside home, but her sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.

Under the new laws, anyone serving a prison term is not allowed to be a member of a political party and parties contravening that regulation can be dissolved.

The legislation also gives parties 60 days from Monday to register, meaning that the NLD must decide quickly whether it will expel Suu Kyi and contest the elections or pull out of the process.

The laws sparked anger from the U.S., which has imposed heavy sanctions on Myanmar but recently launched a policy of increased engagement with the regime. "The political party registration law makes a mockery of the democratic process and ensures the upcoming election will be devoid of credibility," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Wednesday.

Britain expressed "regret" over Suu Kyi's exclusion from the polls.

The U.N.'s Ban renewed his call for Myanmar to "ensure an inclusive political process leading to fair, transparent and credible elections in which all citizens of Myanmar, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, can freely participate," his office said in a statement.

Rights groups also reacted angrily to the new laws.

Amnesty International said Myanmar should immediately release all political prisoners, while Human Rights Watch said the law showed the junta's "contempt for the democratic process".

The Philippines yesterday described the law affecting Suu Kyi as a "farce," becoming the first member of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to publicly comment. The group includes Myanmar. But China, which has huge investments in neighboring Myanmar, said the laws were a matter for Myanmar alone.

Taiwan News Online

Tourism law in final stage: Prince Sultan bin Salman

By ANWAR AL-SAYED | ARAB NEWS

MAKKAH: The new tourism law is in its final stage and could be passed this year, according to the chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA).

“It is now being discussed at the Shoura Council,” Prince Sultan bin Salman said.

Speaking to reporters after opening a SCTA office for licensing and investment in Makkah, Prince Sultan said all hotels in the Kingdom would be classified on the basis of international standards.

He said the commission would not allow any foul play in the issuing of hotel licenses, adding that it would be given only to those hotels that fulfill all necessary conditions, especially safety.

“We have given all hotels enough time to correct their situations to obtain licenses,” he said.

He said the commission had signed 72 partnership agreements with government departments and the private sector.

“We have made a proposal to set up professional associations in the hospitality and tourism sectors,” Prince Sultan said, adding that these societies would work as principal partners of the state.

He said the commission has discussed the pricing of hotel rooms and furnished apartments with the minister of commerce and industry, investors and the hospitality committee.

“We are now in the process of taking a decision in this matter,” he said.

The government had earlier issued a law for pricing. The prince added that this law should be considered when fixing the prices for hotel services.

Muhammad Al-Amri, executive director of the Tourism Development Department in Makkah, said the new licensing office, the second in the country after the one in Riyadh, was established to provide the best possible services to investors.

He said the Makkah branch would issue licenses for hotels, furnished apartments, resorts, tourism villages, travel and tourism agencies and tourist guides.

He said the new office is located in a strategic place in order for the public to have easy access. “We want to ensure quality in all our activities,” he said.

Abdullah Al-Sawat, director of the Makkah office, said the office is manned by qualified Saudis and provided with advanced facilities.

“There are eight Saudis in the office. They have received good training to provide excellent services,” he said.

Al-Sawat added that the office would use Bluetooth technology to transfer information required by the public. There is also a toll-free number, 8007550000, which can be used to obtain tourism-related information.

Arab News

A momentous day for relatives of the Iraq fallen

By Terri Judd

As The Last Post sounded, the wind that had buffeted the National Memorial Arboretum suddenly dropped and the billowing flags hung forlornly as heads were bowed in silence.

Wave after wave of the families of those who perished in Iraq moved forward solemnly to place their own flowery tributes at the newly rededicated Basra Memorial, the infirm assisted by younger arms.

For a few minutes they crowded around, urgent eyes scanning the gleaming brass plaques set in regimented rows on the brick red granite, looking for their son, daughter, husband or wife. Some sobbed openly as they placed their fingers delicately on the inscription they found.

Today beneath the elegant and imposing national memorial in Staffordshire to those who have lost their lives in conflicts since the Second World War, a smaller wall was rededicated. It was the memorial that the soldiers had built for their fallen comrades in Basra, dismantled at the end of Operation Telic combat operations last year and brought back to Britain.

The central marble tablet, dedicated at the St Paul’s Cathedral commemoration service last year reads: “Honourable age does not depend on length of days, nor is the number of years a true measure of life”.

The conflict may be consigned to history but the searing grief of the families, almost 500 of which gathered for the ceremony yesterday, was still fresh. On a day when five soldiers were repatriated from Afghanistan and two more were buried, it was a moment to remember earlier sacrifices from another war.

Staring at his son’s plaque, Dany Wysoczan struggled to express his emotions. “It hurts,” he said simply. Private Johnathon Wysoczan of the Staffordshire Regiment, 21, died days after being shot by a sniper in 2007. His father added haltingly: “It is fantastic but I am here for the wrong reasons, because I have lost my son,”, “It is gorgeous,” said Carol Jones, who lost her son Sergeant John Jones, 31, of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, to a bomb in late 2005. “When they played the Last Post, four and half years of tears just came out”.

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown as well as the leaders of the other parties, the Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup and the Duke of Gloucester sat in the front row of a short poignant service yesterday over which flew a formation of RAF Tornados.

A note with Mr Brown's wreath read: "Each one a hero, who put country before comfort, service before self and liberty before life, a grateful nation will never forget".

Nervously Tracey Hazel, whose son Corporal Ben Leaning, 24, of The Queen’s Royal Lancers, was killed on 19 April 2007, battled against the wind and damp to light a candle at the base of memorial – which has a plaque for each of the 179 Brits who died as well as soldiers from other nations who perished fighting alongside them.

“It was really emotional. I never ever thought I would see the wall in my life time,” she explained. “I saw a photograph of it (in Basra) and spent hours to see if I could find Ben’s plaque. I knew he was the 143rd. I am really grateful to those who campaigned to bring it home”.

In a week when Mr Brown was accused of starving the armed forces before the Chilcot Inquiry and using a visit to troops in Afghanistan as a political stunt, his presence yesterday divided opinion. While several insisted they remained grateful for his assistance in bringing back the memorial others felt the seats he and his fellow politicians had taken at the service could have been better filled by family. Most, however, seemed oblivious to his presence, insisting the day was not for political posturing but for dignified remembrance.

For the families who fought to have the memorial brought home for fear that it would fall into ruins in Iraq, it was a momentous day.

“There is the national memorial but this is the military one. This was the one made by the boys for the boys,” explained Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon, 34, of the Intelligence Corps was killed by a roadside bomb in 2005.

Former Sergeant Major Matt Graves recalled the two weeks his men from the Royal Engineers spent making the original wall in 2006. At the height of the battles in Basra in Operation Sinbad, they spent their spare time – often clad in body armour and helmet because the base was regularly mortared – building the wall at night. Three times he told them to take it down and start again.

“They knew this had to be right. The night we finished it we all stood back and had a quiet little moment. There was an overwhelming sense of pride that it was something that was going to last. It was fallen our comrades”.

The Independent

Un anuncio de un supermercado israelí parodia el asesinato de Dubai

Los actores, vestidos como los supuestos agentes que mataron a Mahmud al Mahbub, son grabados con cámaras de vigilancia

EL PAÍS - Madrid - 11/03/2010

Dos actores, durante el rodaje de un anuncio que parodia el asesinato de un líder de Hamás en Dubai.- AP

Una cadena de supermercados israelíes intenta rentabilizar el asesinato de un líder de Hamás en Dubai, supuestamente a manos de agentes del Mosad. Las imágenes grabadas por cámaras de videovigilancia de los asesinos dieron la vuelta al mundo. Un anuncio, que se rodó ayer, parodia esas grabaciones, con un lema: "Ofrecemos precios asesinos".

Una mujer con una gafas de sol y una pamela hace la compra acompañada por un tenista. Los actores, en un supermercado de la localidad de Petah Tikva (centro de Israel), pasean por el local con un carro cargado de productos y mirada esquiva. "No admito nada", dice la mujer, imitando a las autoridades israelíes.

"Es una parodia del suceso", dice el ejecutivo publicitario Sefi Shaked, citado por la cadena BBC, en referencia al asesinato de Mahmud al Mahbuh en un hotel de Dubai el pasado 20 de enero. "Estábamos fascinados por la técnica de las cámaras de vigilancia", en lugar de las caras cámaras que se utilizan para el rodaje de anuncios de alta calidad, "y los recientes sucesos de Dubai nos han brindado una gran oportunidad".

Una docena de personas integraban el comando asesino. En Israel, casi todos dan por hecho que pertenecen a sus servicios secretos. Los agentes fueron grabados por cámaras del aeropuerto de Dubai y del hotel donde se cometió el crimen, aunque estaban disfrazados para evitar ser reconocidos. El uso de pasaportes falsos de distintos países, entre ellos Irlanda, Reino Unido y Alemania, provocó roces diplomáticos. Incluso la UE condenó este uso fraudulento , aunque sin mencionar a Israel como autor material del asesinato, y sin condenar el crimen en sí.

La cadena de supermercados Mahsanei Kimat Hinam, que ya está logrando publicidad gratuita con el rodaje, prevé emitir los anuncios a finales de mes.

El País

Leefbaar Rotterdam 'collected' proxy votes

The public prosecution department in Rotterdam has begun an investigation into the collection of proxy votes by supporters of local populist party Leefbaar Rotterdam following the discovery of an email full of tips for getting other people's voting forms.

The email was sent to party workers by city councillor Ronald Buijt who told reporters on Wednesday night he had done nothing wrong. 'It was just a way of approaching our own supporters,' Buijt was quoted as saying in the AD.

But a spokesman for the local election council said: 'Voters who cannot cast their ballot themselves have to take the initiative to find someone to vote for them by proxy. The voter must take the initiative, not others, such as political parties'.

Recount

Council officials in Rotterdam are beginning a recount of all 220,000 votes cast in the port city on Thursday following claims of irregularities at polling stations.

According to the initial election result, Labour is just 651 votes ahead of Leefbaar. Both parties would take 14 seats on the city council.

'This incident [proxy voting] puts all Leefbaar's complaints about the election in a different light,' said local Labour leader Peter van Heemst. 'I have a bad feeling about this and I feel I've been fooled because for the past week Leefbaar has been giving the impression it fought a perfectly clean campaign'.

Shocking

'I think this is shocking,' Arno Bonte, leader of the left-wing greens GroenLinks' local campaign. 'Leefbaar Rotterdam has been around for eight years and should know better'.

The local election in Rotterdam has been dogged by controversy, with some papers now calling for a completely new vote.

According to the NRC, there were more than 100 incidents at the polls, ranging from multiple voting, one polling station being left unmanned for a few minutes and party workers trying to recruit support in the polling stations themselves. 

One ballot box was even found to be empty at the end of the day, the paper claims. 

Dutch News