April 19, 2007, 5:13PMReid: U.S. can't win the war in Iraq
By ANNE FLAHERTY Associated Press Writer © 2007 The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the war in Iraq is "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops.
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WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the war in Iraq is "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops.
The bleak assessment was the sharpest yet from Reid, who has vowed to send President Bush legislation calling for combat to end next year. Reid said he told Bush on Wednesday that he thought the war could not be won through military force and only through political, economic and diplomatic means.
"I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and — you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday," said Reid, D-Nev.
Republicans pounced on the comment as evidence, they said, that Democrats do not support the troops.
"I can't begin to imagine how our troops in the field, who are risking their lives every day, are going to react when they get back to base and hear that the Democrat leader of the United States Senate has declared the war is lost," said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The exchange came as the House headed toward a vote Thursday on whether to demand that troops leave Iraq next year. Last month, the House passed legislation that funded the war in Iraq but ordered combat missions to end by September 2008. The Senate passed similar, less-sweeping legislation that would set a nonbinding goal of bringing combat troops home by March 31, 2008.
The exchange came as the House headed toward a vote Thursday on whether to demand that troops leave Iraq next year. Last month, the House passed legislation that funded the war in Iraq but ordered combat missions to end by September 2008. The Senate passed similar, less-sweeping legislation that would set a nonbinding goal of bringing combat troops home by March 31, 2008.
Bush said he would veto either measure and warned that troops are being harmed by Congress' failure to deliver the funds quickly.
The Pentagon says it has enough money to pay for the Iraq war through June. The Army is taking "prudent measures" aimed at ensuring that delays in the bill financing the war do not harm troop readiness, according to instructions sent to Army commanders and budget officials April 14.
While $70 billion that Congress provided in September for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has mostly run out, the Army has told department officials to slow the purchase of nonessential repair parts and other supplies, restrict the use of government charge cards, and limit travel.
The Army also will delay contracts for facilities repair and environmental restoration, according to instructions from Army Comptroller Nelson Ford. He said the accounting moves are similar to those enacted last year when the Republican-led Congress did not deliver a war funding bill to Bush until mid-June.
More stringent steps would be taken in May, such as a hiring freeze and firing temporary employees, but exceptions are made for any war-related activities or anything that "would result immediately in the degradation of readiness standards" for troops in Iraq or those slated for deployment.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called the Democrat's stance "disturbing" and all but dared Reid to cut off funding for the war.
"If this is his true feeling, then it makes one wonder if he has the courage of his convictions and therefore will decide to defund the war," she said.
Reid has left that possibility open. The majority leader supports separate legislation that would cut off funding for combat missions after March 2008. The proposal would allow money spent on
such efforts as counterterrorism efforts and training Iraqi security forces.
Reid and other Democrats were initially reluctant to discuss such draconian measures to end the war, but no longer.
"I'm not sure much is impossible legislatively," Reid said Thursday. "The American people have indicated . . . that they are fed up with what's going on."
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Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.
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Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.
Article Two:
US: Iranians Aid Iraqi Sunni Car Bombers
By Al Pessin Pentagon19 April 2007
By Al Pessin Pentagon19 April 2007
A senior U.S. military officer says a renewed effort to break suicide bomb networks in Iraq has led, at least in part, to Iranian intelligence services. The statement came at the Pentagon Thursday, as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was visiting Baghdad on the day on a day of continued bombings, after a particularly deadly series of bombings Wednesday. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.
At a Pentagon briefing, Major General Michael Barbero said Iran shares the goals of the Sunni insurgents, to destabilize Iraq and tie down U.S. forces. He said that appears to be the reason Iran is now helping the Sunni groups, as well as Shi'ite extremists.
Major General Michael Barbero"We are seeing some aid from the Iranian intelligence services to the Sunni insurgents," he said. "Detainees in American custody have indicated that Iranian intelligence operatives have given support to Sunni insurgents. And then we've discovered some munitions in Baghdad neighborhoods which are largely Sunni that were manufactured in Iran."
General Barbero, who is on the senior military staff, says U.S. forces have been focusing for some time on the networks that send out suicide bombers with huge bombs in their cars and trucks, such as those who struck Wednesday killing, according to the U.S. military, 150 Iraqi civilians. The U.S. military calls the large bombs, which mostly target Shi'ite neighborhoods Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED).
"We've had a renewed focus on what we call 'the accelerants' for sectarian violence," he added. "And we've had success, some success with the extra-judicial killings. The murder rates are down. We've had some success with these VBIED networks. So it is a priority. And it has been a focus since before the start of this operation."
On Wednesday, Admiral William Fallon, the U.S. military officer commanding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, called the vehicle bombs the most important issue for his forces to address because their aim is to foment sectarian violence.
The bombings continued Thursday, with at least 12 people reported killed in one incident in Baghdad, less than a kilometer from the home of Iraq's president. Two Iraqi soldiers were among the dead, and coalition military officials reported two British soldiers were killed in a bombing in southern Iraq.
In a speech, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the insurgents are "targeting humanity," and that his government is engaged in what he called "an open battle…for the sake of the nation, dignity, honor and the people."
Also on Thursday, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said the Wednesday bombings were a setback that came just as he thought the new Baghdad Security Plan was starting to take hold.
Lt. Gen. David Petraeus"A day like that can have a real psychological impact," said General Petraeus. "And it came at a time where, frankly, [Lieutenant] General [Ray] Odierno [his deputy] and I, and a lot of the other leaders in Baghdad and throughout Iraq, have felt that we were getting a bit of traction. You know it's very, it's almost imperceptible at times, but that there was slow progress with the Baghdad security plan and in some other parts of the country as well."
General Petraeus said Iraqi and coalition leaders are taking action to respond to the challenge posed by the recent series of large-scale bombings.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in suit at Camp Falluja, IraqThe general spoke during a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and some of the top U.S. military officers. Secretary Gates says he will press Iraqi leaders to make faster progress on reconciliation between the Sunni and Shi'ite communities, which U.S. officials believe is the key to long-term stability in Iraq.
At the Pentagon briefing, General Barbero said there has been some success in easing some types of violence in recent weeks, including a drop in sectarian murders and in the overall number of attacks on civilians in Baghdad and elsewhere. But he said those successes, like the continuing bombings, are just part of the story.
"We have to take a longer term view of this and not take a successful day and blow that out of proportion or take one of these tragic days like we had yesterday [Wednesday] and extrapolate that into a trend," said General Barbero.
In Iraq, General Petraeus said all the U.S. troops involved in the current surge of forces will not be in place until mid-June, and it will take some time after that to see the full impact of the security plan. Secretary Gates said how long the higher number of troops will stay will depend on progress in the security and political efforts.
Article Three:
Iran ‘months’ away from next nuclear phase
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels
Published: April 19 2007 09:48 Last updated: April 19 2007 16:45
Iran is a “matter of months” away from completing the next phase of its nuclear programme, diplomats said on Thursday, in response to a leaked letter from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
The letter, written by Olli Heinonen, IAEA deputy director general, indicates that Iran has installed up to 1,312 centrifuges at a facility in Natanz and is using them to enrich uranium - a process that could produce both nuclear fuel and weapons grade material.
“This certainly demonstrates complete defiance of the United Nations Security Council,” said a western diplomat, referring to a series of Security Council resolutions demanding that Tehran cease uranium enrichment. “It shows they are going full speed ahead.”
Iran, which insists its purposes are peaceful, is currently proceeding with plans to install 3,000 centrifuges – which in theory could produce enough uranium for a weapon within a year. But in practice, it could take many times that long to produce enough weapons material, and it would take still longer to engineer a bomb.
In February, Tehran told the IAEA that it had installed the first two 164-centrifuge “cascades” of the system and had nearly completed another two.
Mr Heinonen’s letter, dated April 18, said that Tehran had now installed eight cascades and had begun putting feedstock into them. Diplomats estimated this meant that Iran could expect to install all 3,000 centrifuges in “a matter of months” – in another three or four months.
In February, Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA director general, told the Financial Times that Tehran could install 3,000 centrifuges in six months to a year from that time.
In February, Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA director general, told the Financial Times that Tehran could install 3,000 centrifuges in six months to a year from that time.
“Where they are now is where you would expect them to be now in installing these machines, but it still leaves significant questions to what the capability is,” said a European official. “We don’t know how many machines they actually have and we don’t know how well they’re operating.”
Diplomats added that Mr Heinonen’s letter was partly intended to inform IAEA governments of the true status of Iran’s programme in the wake of claims last week by Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s president, that the country had reached “industrial” capacity. The letter also censured Tehran for limiting IAEA access to its facilities.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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