Free Republic

Major Terrorist Captured By Iraqi Forces July 14, 2005 - Baghdad, Iraq - PipeLineNews - Iraqi security forces yesterday captured 78 terrorists in combined operations. The dragnet including the apprehension of one of the most wanted men in Baghdad - Ammar Howaidi- who is connected to Mola-Mahd a faction thought part of the Jordanian al-Qaeda mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network. Hoadid was captured disguised in a woman's dress in a bulletproof car which contained an assortment of weapons. In separate actions, the Iraqi 4th Special Forces Division captured 5 suspected terrorists and a huge quantity of weapons and explosives....

Indicators of Progress in Iraq · There are more than 997,000 telephone landline subscribers-up 20% from a pre-war level of 833,000. There are more than 2,600,000 cell phone subscribers-none existed prior to Mar 03. · There are over 168,000 internet subscribers. The estimated pre-war level is 4,500 subscribers. · More than 149,000 Iraqis are currently being employed by USG projects. · The Iraqi Stock Exchange opened in June 2004. It currently lists 89 companies (up from 40-50 under Saddam) with a total market capitalization of $1.4 billion. Between $2-6 million in shares are traded daily. · In Oct 2004, 4.3...

Did you know that 47 countries have reestablished their embassies in Iraq ? Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction! and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq? Did you know that Iraqi higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers? Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the reestablished Fulbright program? Did you know that the Iraqi Navy...

We have seen indications this week, that the quality of the insurgents' expertise in bomb handling as well as their driving skills is somewhat lacking. Six separate incidents this week in AO Liberty in which the AIF blew themselves to the 5th ring of hell. The week started off well when a report filtered up from one of the Battalions up in the province of Kirkuk about a premature IED explosion along one of our routes. A patrol reported back with the grisly news little bits and pieces of two AIF clowns littering the small crater on the side of...

The London subway and bus bombings of July 7 killed some forty people and injured seven hundred others. Such acts are yet another wake-up call to people in every country who evidently need constant graphic reminders that a real war is being fought against them on a world-scale. Public life will not go on "as usual" so long as militant, aggressive Islam, however statistically and comparatively small in numbers, is active throughout the world. Its analysis of the moral decadence in the West encourages it to think it can undermine the will of particularly its most effective military and principled...

Source July 08, 2005 More Progress In Afghanistan You're Likely To Have Missed The Army News Service reports that eighteen top Taliban commanders have turned themselves over to the Karzai government for its amnesty program. The commanders come from the splinter Taliban group Hezb-i Islami, which often found itself at odds with Mullah Omar: Eighteen of Gulbiddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami commanders turned themselves over to government officials in the Paktia Province June 12. Under the terms of the Afghan government’s reconciliation program, Pakhm-e Sohl, the former commanders returned home after years of living in Pakistan. ... The loyalty statement to...

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2005 – Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad are making progress in their training and will be ready to assume responsibility for security measures for the October elections, the area's top U.S. commander said today. Speaking by satellite from Baghdad in a Pentagon news briefing, Army Maj. Gen. William Webster, commander of Task Force Baghdad and the 3rd Infantry Division, said two Iraqi brigades already are operating on their own in Baghdad, and two more will be operational in about two months. The remaining two brigades that will make up the Iraqi army division in Baghdad...

Kofi Annan had what perhaps was the quote of the week recently. In an editorial displayed in The Washington Post, Annan said of Iraq: “In a media-hungry age, visibility is often regarded as proof of success, but this does not necessarily hold true in Iraq.” Most of Iraq’s successes have been away from the camera. They have been too far away for most Americans to see. President Bush has stated that “successes” abound in Iraq, but he has failed to elaborate. Therefore, I followed Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s advice and searched for the real facts about Iraq. We do see...

For most of last year, a boulevard called Haifa Street in western Baghdad was the scene of daily street battles between U.S. and Iraqi forces and insurgents. The vicious fighting turned the six-kilometer stretch into a long, bloody nightmare for soldiers and residents alike. But the area has become a shining example of how a disciplined and a determined Iraqi force can defeat the insurgents and restore stability. "Until a few months ago, it was too dangerous for my family and I to even leave the front door open, let alone leave the house," Ms. Saleh says. She points to...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Daily accomplishments, both large and small – in governance, security and reconstruction – marked progress toward Iraqi self-reliance as the country marked a year of sovereignty June 28. What follows is a partial list of these successes. On June 1, in the first move of its kind, Coalition forces officially transferred full responsibility for security at a base in Dibbis to the Iraqi Army. Two hundred dignitaries and civilians attended the flag-raising and ribbon-cutting ceremony, where the Iraqi Army took full control of base and security operations in the area. This historic move marked another significant step...

KEVIN Rudd isn't much chop as a ballet dancer. Did he ever say he was? No. But our ace survivor, Douglas Wood, never claimed to be an "on-the-ground national security policy expert". Yet Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Rudd was embarrassingly insistent last week about this being something Wood wasn't. Why go to the trouble when Wood was clearly identifiable as an engaging seat-of-the-(possibly rather frayed)-pants entrepreneur, and nothing more? Rudd was swatting at Wood for saying things like "God bless America" and "the Iraqis got me out ... so training Iraqi armed forces must be working". Not to mention apologising...

(Second in a series on training Iraqi security forces.) SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq — Sonny Sebastian is running ahead of schedule, and he wants to keep it that way. Sporting an orange hardhat, the 50-year-old Texan ambles from one building to the next to check the progress on the construction of a $16 million academy for the Iraqi Border Police. He talks with a foreman, points here and points there, and then moves on to another supervisor. Originally scheduled for completion in August, the academy may open next month. Located in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, the 22-building academy will include barracks, a...

Progress in Iraq Takes Back Seat to Violence in Media, Rumsfeld Says By Petty Officer 3rd Class John R. Guardiano, USN American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, June 26, 2005 The "solid progress" being made in Iraq seldom gets the same level of media attention as terrorist killings and beheadings there, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today. Moreover, the Iraqi people, he argued, are winning against the insurgency and, with the help of American and coalition forces, will prevail. "The fact of the matter is that the progress has been solid," Rumsfeld told George Stephanopoulos on the ABC News program...

AFGHAN OFFENSIVE KILLS 132 Afghan authorities say they have killed 132 Taliban militants and surrounded four of the ousted regime’s top commanders after a three-day battle in the south of the country. Afghan police, assisted by Afghan and US troops, have hunted down insurgents in their hideouts on the borders of Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces in a bid to stem a rising wave of violence three months before parliamentary elections are due. Kandahar police chief General Mohammed Salem said six foreigners were discovered among the dead. “They have found two Chechen nationals, three Pakistanis, and one Arab,” General Salem...

President Bush will deliver a major address to U.S. troops and the nation about Iraq on Tuesday night from the U.S. military base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the White House said. "This is a critical moment in Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Friday in announcing the speech. "This is a real time of testing." McClellan said the speech would be delivered at 8 p.m., and that the White House has asked U.S. television networks to air the address live. Bush is expected to use the prime time speech to outline his strategy in Iraq amid increasing...

President Bush insisted Monday that the United States was making progress on both the political and security challenges in Iraq, and he urged European allies to put aside their differences with America and work to bring the Iraqi insurgency to an end. Appearing with two leaders of the European Union following a round of private talks at the White House, Bush said the success of the fight against terrorism depended on "completing the mission" in Iraq. "It's an important signal for people to hear loud and clear," Bush said. "There may have been past differences over Iraq, but as we...

BAGHDAD: If Iraqis have one solid economic achievement to hold on to amid their many problems, it is the strength of their currency, which some feared would be devalued out of existence in the months that followed the fall of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in March 2003. The dinar's current value of 1,465 to the benchmark U.S. dollar is virtually unchanged from January 2004, when the introduction of new banknotes to replace the Saddam-era denominations was completed. Sadoon Hamoud Kathir, professor of economics and administration at the University of Baghdad, attributes this remarkable level of stability to sound government...

Today I am traveling to Brussels to join representatives of more than 80 governments and institutions in sending a loud and clear message of support for the political transition in Iraq. A year ago, in Resolution 1546, the U.N. Security Council set out the timetable that Iraq, with the assistance of the United Nations and the international community, was expected to fulfill. The Brussels conference is a chance to reassure the Iraqi people that the international community stands with them in their brave efforts to rebuild their country, and that we recognize how much progress has been made in the...

Small But Decisive Victories in Iraq By Ed Offley While various and sundry politicians and pundits this week were squalling about the possibility of a lost war in Iraq, clear evidence continued to appear showing that victory is not only attainable but possibly closer than we think. Here are two succinct examples: The desert raid: Company H of the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in a predawn raid On June 7 swept in on a house in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar as part of a larger operation to clean out the area of terrorists. They were hunting...

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2005 – Americans cannot forget the progress being made in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said from Jerusalem today. Rice took time off from her trip to the Middle East to speak to Fox News Channel. She said Americans cannot ignore the political and military successes in Iraq. "I would say to the American people, 'Yes, this is very hard and very difficult, but we are making a lot of progress in what will be a strategic breakthrough for the United States, which is to have a different kind of Middle East'" Rice said. Recent polls...