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Baghdad leaders reveal that coup plot duped MI6 Julie Flint explains how rumours of Saddam's overthrow caused British intelligence to miss vital information about Iraq's weapons programme British intelligence took its eyes off Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes because it had been duped into believing a military coup would leave Sunni Muslims in power in Iraq. Sources in the country say what they missed was a push to convert chemical and biological organisms into dry agents that could be hidden until pressure on the regime was lifted. 'From the second half of 2000, the focus of the British was not on...

The government of Iraq is secretly holding a Baathist cabal of military officers it claims attempted a coup against Prime Minister al-Maliki. The plotters were rounded up July 5 with the help of American military authorities after the Iraqi government's security warning center sent word to Mr. Maliki, who was in Kuwait on his first official visit as head of state, two highly placed Iraqi sources said. The prime minister quickly canceled a scheduled trip to Amman, Jordan, and returned to Baghdad to attend to the matter. At the time, Mr. Maliki's staff told reporters that the prime minister was...

Beyond these political challenges, two other familiar and no less formidable challenges remain: Iraq's security and Iraq's economy. We need to continue to build Iraq's security forces and security apparatus in a transparent and accountable, as well as effective, manner. This will both improve security and allow the multinational forces to leave Iraq. Grateful as we are to the international community for the help and their sacrifices to date, Iraqis should be able to start taking over more and more security responsibilities very soon. But we will continue to need and to seek assistance for some time to come. Security...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 22 - Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite doctor with an Islamist bent, was chosen Tuesday by the victorious Shiite alliance as its candidate to become Iraq's new prime minister. The decision may well open a period of protracted and rancorous negotiations with a coalition of secular leaders intent on sharply curtailing Dr. Jaafari's powers or blocking him and his clerical-backed coalition. Ayad Allawi, the current prime minister, and Barham Salih, a Kurdish politician and deputy prime minister, said in separate interviews on Tuesday that without guarantees renouncing sectarianism and embracing Western democratic ideals they were poised to block...

ebruary 3, 2005 - At least the Iraqi's have a positive outlook I decided not to write about the President's State of The Union address because frankly it bores me. Sure, it is mandated by the Constitution, but frankly nothing W. is going to say tonight is going to have me quaking in my boots. Harry Reed and the rest of the Dem's are so confident of what the President is going to say, they have already crafted their reply. On the subject of Iraq, Harry and crew want a timetable of when the troops are coming home. Funny thing...

Baghdad - Insurgents have killed at least a dozen people in the rebel campaign to frighten Iraqis away from participating in the weekend election. In attacks on designated polling stations and troops around the country yesterday, a score of Iraqis were killed or hurt. One US soldier was killed and five were injured. And as part of an intensifying campaign of intimidation, an al-Qaeda affiliate led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi posted a videotape on the Internet showing the murder of a candidate from the party of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. The tape included a warning to...

BERLIN, Dec. 3 - German police today arrested three Iraqis who the chief federal prosecutor said appeared to have been planning an attack on Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq, here for talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said that the men were arrested after a series of raids in three German cities overnight. Intercepts of telephone conversations involving the three suspects had pointed to an attack on Mr. Allawi, he said. "There were indications pointing to a particular event" in Mr. Allawi's program, Mr. Nehm said at a press conference in Karlsruhe, in southwest Germany. Mr....

THE PRIME MINISTER BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 12 - Seeking to speed the return of senior officials of the former ruling Baath Party into the government, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has tried to dismantle a powerful independent commission that was established after the American invasion to keep such people from power. It is the most aggressive move yet by Dr. Allawi, a former Baathist who fell out of favor with Saddam Hussein, to bring former ranking party members into his fold. Dr. Allawi says the readmissions will dampen an increasingly lethal insurgency by co-opting disenfranchised Sunni Muslim Baathists. The expertise of...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR In recent days, attention has been focused on some remarks I've made about Iraq. The coverage of these remarks has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context. In my speeches, I have said that the United States paid a price for not stopping the looting in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of major combat operations and that we did not have enough troops on the ground to accomplish that task. The press and critics of the war have seized on these remarks in an effort to...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Republicans roundly criticized Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) last week for his comments about interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. On Thursday, Allawi addressed a joint session of Congress and participated in a Rose Garden press conference with President George W. Bush at the White House. While Kerry was suffering the affects of a severe head cold that caused him to nearly lose his voice, he was able to utter a few lines that touched off an avalanche of criticism. Kerry claimed that Allawi was sent before Congress by the Bush administration to put...

Thank you. Two of the most powerful words ever spoken. Unless you are John Kerry. Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi spoke before a joint session of Congress earlier Thursday and thanked this country for its efforts in his country. First, he offered an optimistic outlook on Iraq’s future and the willingness of his fellow countrymen to rid the country of the terrorists and insurgents who are murdering people in an effort to stop freedom. Then he got around to the most powerful part — in our view — of his speech. “The second message is quite simple and one that...

Today, Iraqi leader Ayad Allawi spoke to the US about the progress made in Iraq. Allawi said that great measures have been made, as well as setbacks. He reassured America that it had done the right thing, and he said that elections will go as planned. This was a brave thing to say and indeed the attacks came swiftly towards him for it. If you do not know already, John Kerry is already on the war path. Kerry assaulted Interim Prime Minister Allawi by claiming that he was put up to the test because of George W Bush. Kerry: ``The...

WASHINGTON - Offering a simple, "Thank you America," Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi declared Thursday that his country is moving successfully past the war that ousted Saddam Hussein and vowed that elections will take place next year as scheduled. "Elections will occur in Iraq on time in January because Iraqis want elections on time," Allawi told a joint meeting of Congress, an appearance that President Bush's advisers hoped would ease American voters' doubts about the troubled campaign in Iraq. Despite struggles and setbacks, "the values of liberty and democracy" are taking hold in his country, Allawi proudly exclaimed. "We...

Iraq's new prime minister Ayad Allawi was yesterday given sweeping powers to counter insurgents, including the right to declare a state of emergency and to impose nationwide curfews. The comprehensive package of measures will also allow him to appoint military governors to take charge of cities or provinces, close the country's borders, seize the assets of suspects and monitor their phone calls and emails. The national security law, which was passed unanimously by the cabinet, was unveiled by ministers in the heavily-guarded "green zone" in central Baghdad as masked fighters battled Iraqi police and US troops less than a mile...

IRAQ'S interim prime minister said today he would not interfere with an Iraqi tribunal's right to decide whether Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants should be executed on war crimes charges, the Arab language television station Al-Arabiya reported. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he was willing to abide by whatever the court decides in the trial, which is not expected to begin for months. Iraq assumed legal custody of Saddam from the US last week and re-instituted the death penalty, which had been suspended by US occupation authorities. "As for the execution, that is for the court to decide -...

I was on the road back to Baghdad on the 28th when the transfer of authority to the Iraqi interim government was announced. Since I was exhausted and starving from the long road, I was therefore more interested in gobbling up my lunch of tishreeb and rice than the ceremonies on tv at the bustling restaurant near Kut. I thought it was a wise decision to announce the event two days before it was planned so I wasn't much surprised, though some people argue that it spoiled the whole thing. Actually, it took the unguarded Arab media by complete surprise,...

BAGHDAD -- On Wednesday the sovereignty of Iraq will be restored, and the Iraqi people will take their first major steps toward a free and prosperous future, after more than three decades of tyrannical rule, repression, wars and sanctions. This will be an important milestone for Iraq, the region and indeed the whole world, endorsed by the unanimous approval of the U.N. Security Council in Resolution 1546 earlier this month. As Iraqis, we thank the coalition for the sacrifices made by its soldiers and its people for the liberation and rebuilding of Iraq, and for the contributions by all the...

The man tapped to head Iraq's new interim government is vouching for the authenticity of evidence that links Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks. Though the notion that Iraq played a role in 9/11 is considered heresy in U.S. intelligence circles, newly appointed Iraq Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday that a document purported to be from Saddam's intelligence service that places lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta in Baghdad two months before the attacks was indeed "genuine." "We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," Allawi told the London Telegraph. "But this is the most compelling...

Recently translated documents captured by U.S. forces provide new evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Rosters of officers in Saddam's Fedayeen list Lt. Col. Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, who was present at the January 2000 al-Qaida "summit" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at which the 9-11 attacks were planned, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Fedayeen was the elite paramilitary group run by Saddam's son Uday, which was deployed to do much of the regime's dirty work. The U.S. has never been sure Shakir was at the Kuala...

U.S., U.N. Blindsided on Iraq PM Announcement 1 hour, 55 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When word surfaced in Baghdad on Friday that Iyad Allawi would lead Iraq's interim government, confusion reigned both in Washington and at the United Nations, despite President Bush's assurances of an orderly handover. For weeks, the Bush administration has described the selection of the interim government as a process that was being spearheaded by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in consultation with the United States and Iraqis. Bush, in a major address on Monday, laid out...