Iraq Report, Mar 14/05

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. This briefing is brought to you by Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended and Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.

TOP TOPICS

• Discussions over the makeup of the new Iraqi government continue to percolate without resolution, as the Kurds and the Shiite alliance were unable to reach a compromise over the weekend. The talks will continue this week. Omar has some thoughts on the impasse. Spencer Ackerman takes a look behind the scenes at what may be motivating the impasse, and the NYT looks at the issue of oil in Kirkuk and its effects on Kurdish-Arab tensions.

• Apparently some of the looting that took place in Iraq following the fall of Baghdad was quite deliberately directed: the New York Times is reporting that looters hit specific Iraq weapons sites and stripped them bare, making off with components capable of building nuclear weapons. (Where they found such components in a country that conventional wisdom now tells us had no WMDs remains a mystery.) An Iraqi minister says he believes the weapons components were taken for sale and not for use in a weapons program.

• While some MilBloggers have returned home, new MilBlogger Thunder6 steps up to blog from Iraq in 365 and a Wakeup.

Other Topics Today Include: suicide bombing in Mosul; mass graves near Syria; a Cat and a Cowboy come home; reconstruction highlights; Carnival of the Liberated: Ukraine begins its withdrawal; how to make more money doing the same old thing in Iraq.

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• A suicide bomber walked into a funeral tent in Mosul on Thursday and detonated himself, killing at least 50 Iraqis.

• Two American contractors were killed by an IED over the weekend while driving south of Baghdad. The contractors were employees of Blackwater Security, the agency responsible for protecting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

• Iraqi authorities found 41 bodies at sites near the Syrian border. The dead included women and children, possibly family members of men suspected of supporting the Iraqi government.

• The Questing Cat and The Jersey Cowboy have been windows to a soldiers life in Iraq - they've seen it all. Well, they are back home now and have shared their reflections of the past year in Iraq and its impact on their lives. Oh, they also tell us who they are.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

• Here are a few of this week's Iraq reconstruction highlights: Work is in progress at 48 sites to improve the quality of potable water and sites are being investigated for reverse osmosis and water treatment plants in Wasit, Karbala, Dahuk, Tamim, and Kirkuk. The Iraqi Central Bank is receiving continued assistance in order to be able to conduct macroeconomic policy, make inter-bank payments, and have a banking system with appropriate accounting and financial reporting standards. Two communities in An Najaf governorate participated in workshops to replace rural schools made of mud and reeds with concrete facilities. In Arbil Governorate, the Community Action Program is adding four classrooms to a local school to improve access to education for 660 students. An ITI grant helped a northern Iraqi NGO implement a project to improve health and social services to local senior citizens.

• Several Iraqi businessmen have recently been approached by a Studebaker. This one offers you a loan of up to $50,000.

IRAQI POLITICS

• When the Iraqi National Assembly meets for the first time on March 16, it is anticipated there may be a formal agreement already signed by the principals of the Iraqi Shiite-Kurd alliance, which swept the recent elections. The document is said to include the acceptance of the Transitional Law as the Iraqi Constitution going forward. Among several other important points, this is significant for Iraqi Kurds as it provides provisions for an autonomous Kurdish region - to include the city of Kirkuk.

• The latest Carnival of the Liberated is up at Dean's World.

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• Ukrainian forces began their scheduled withdrawal from Iraq over the weekend. The drawdown will remove 1,650 troops from Iraq.

ETCETERA

• Captain James Brady was separated from the Army after 17 years as an Intelligence & Security Officer in a bizarre twist of events connected with his reporting another soldier for auctioning sensitive information on eBay. He is deploying to Iraq for a year-long tour as a Halliburton security consultant to - the United States Army.

• Do you have your GI Bracelet? Many military families fall into financial hardship when the breadwinner is injured or killed. The entire $5 purchase price of the GI Bracelet is donated to support our troops and their families! Please join us to give back to these brave people in their time of need.

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!

• Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!

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