US memo says Iraq in freefall

Issue Date Tue, Jun 20 06
US memo says Iraq in freefall

A LEAKED telegram from the US embassy in Baghdad signed by the ambassador paints a grim picture of Iraq as a country in freefall.

It reveals that the real rulers of the country are the militias, and the central government counts for nothing. It also details the terror of staff. The cable, signed by the US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and sent to the State Department in Washington on 6 June, is wholly at odds with the rosy accounts given by President George Bush in recent visits to Iraq.
(snip/)

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1636574&issue_id=14227

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Leaked memo reveals plight of Iraqis
By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 20 June 2006

A leaked cable from the US embassy in Baghdad signed by the ambassador paints a grim picture of Iraq as a country disintegrating in which the real rulers are the militias, and the central government counts for nothing.

The cable, signed by the US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and sent to the State Department in Washington on 6 June, is wholly at odds with the optimistic account of developments given by President George Bush and Tony Blair in their recent visits to Iraq.

Iraqis employed by the US embassy live in fear that other Iraqis will find out who they are working for. "We have begun shredding documents printed out that show local staff surnames," the cable says. "In March a few staff approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate."

The US and Britain have said they would withdraw their troops as the security situation improved, though the embassy memo suggests that it was, in fact, deteriorating. Britain said yesterday that it was to pull out 170 soldiers from Muthana province in southern Iraq when the Iraqi government took over security there next month.
(snip/...)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1090905.ece

it is often a lie or somehow departs from reality.

There are chilling details about why, even in the heavily fortified Green Zone, Iraqis employed by the US embassy are frightened. "In April, employees began reporting change in demeanour of guards at the Green Zone checkpoints," the memo says. "They seemed to be more militia-like. In some cases seemingly taunting." The vulnerability of the US position in Baghdad is so great that the Iraqi military units guarding the perimeter of the Green Zone, the heart of US power in Iraq, are now considered untrustworthy.

An Iraqi employee asked if she could have credentials saying she was a journalist. This was because the Iraqi soldiers would hold up "her embassy badge and proclaim loudly to nearby passers-by 'Embassy' as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people."

The memo, leaked to The Washington Post, gives a vivid and detailed account of the limited authority of the US and the Iraqi government in Baghdad. Entitled "Snapshots from the Office: Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord" it is one of the most revealing documents ever made public, in this case involuntarily, by US authorities in Iraq. Based on the experiences of the nine-member Iraq staff of the public affairs press office in the US embassy, the cable portrays a society in a state of collapse.

As Islamic militancy increases, women find it increasingly dangerous not to wear a veil in Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods. One was warned not to drive a car. Others were told to cover their faces and to stop using mobile phones. Threats against women who do not accept this second class status have escalated in the last two months. It has also become dangerous for men to wear shorts or jeans in public or for children to play outside wearing shorts.

(End of quote)

It is easy to imagine a parallel memo, if there WERE an Iraq embassy in DC, would read as follows:

A leaked cable from the Iraq embassy in Washington,signed by the ambassador, paints a grim picture of the US as a country disintegrating in which the real rulers are the military-industrial neocons, and the central government(House/Senate) counts for nothing.

US Prisons are filled to overflowing with non-violent drug users; elderly are being bilked via the new pro-Big Pharma Medicare drug program; public school systems are being stripped of tax revenue to fund unaccredited "home schooling" and faith-based charter schools; future generations will be bankrupted by the massive and exploding federal deficit; student loan funding has been slashed to force middle class kids to sign up as cannon fodder; environmental regulations are being gutted; election results are at odds with voter surveys immediately prior to the elections; military forces are undermanned, underequipped, badly fed, and suffering from fatigue, depression and PTSD; the country's foreign policy and international reputation is in shambles as it's reckless militaristic policies and bloodthirsty use of torture are treated with contempt by the rest of the world.

We beat the drums on that also if I can recall that far back.

Worked well the last time,

Didn't it?

I'm guessing in about '66 in which he told all about all the wonderful things we built in VN like new schools, hospitals, water slides, drive in theatres etc..... Sounded like some kind of Stamford, Connecticut when he was done. Almost made me want to move there.

We found out otherwise.

The ones that were later used to write, "Fuck You"

Sunday morning news shows back in 2005 say that he could see "the light at the end of the tunnel." My jaw dropped to the floor at this instance of Vietnam deja-entendu. (Westmoreland uttered the same words in Dec. 67, one month before the National Liberation Front launched the Tet '68 offensive.)

I thought I saw it yesterday, but I can't find it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601768.html

The link includes a link to a PDF version of the cable.

It's a depressing read...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/20/AR2006062000789.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A recent cable to the State Department from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad outlines a litany of fears and misery among Iraqi employees at the American diplomatic mission that threaten "objectivity, civility, and logic" among workers.

The collection of anecdotes from Iraqi workers in an undisclosed office in the embassy paints an extraordinarily bleak picture of life in the capital, where local employees do not dare reveal where they work, even to family members, for fear of retribution.

<snip>

It was first published Sunday by The Washington Post and apparently arrived in Washington during the early days of June, shortly before President Bush made his surprise visit to the capital.

The report details fears among women who are taunted and threatened if they do not wear clothing of extreme modesty as demanded by some fundamentalist adherents of Islam.

...more...

this one refers to the Sunday article - but posts no link :shrug:

imprregnable Green Zone. And summer's just starting.

the notion that we can't secure ANY part of Iraq is terrifying. It is terrifying to think that the worst military disaster in U.S. history is possible. Just imagine the political climate in this country if that happens.

sense of what we may be facing there this summer. Today I heard a report on non-MSM that 80-100 factory workers were abducted by gunmen in broad daylight while going to or returning from work.

We'll have Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News tell us how "Navy Seals rock!"

:puke:
dbt
Remember New Orleans

She makes me sick.

Couric vs. Herr Rumsfeld in a Death's-Head Grin contest?

MTV2 has brought Celebrity Deathmatch back. God, I hope they get politcal with this. I would love to see Mike Malloy with Rush Limbaugh, especially after listening to Mike's show last night. I thought Mike was going to stroke out! LMAO

failed to meet expectations.

I would love to hear an interview by Christiane Amanpour of a German or Israeli intelligence official on the prospects of a stable government in Baghdad. We need to hear from soruces other than Junior, Dick, Don, and Condi.

UASSR. We're living in it.

job with that interview?

I'd clear my schedule to listen in.

I eat this stuff up. Maybe I'm just starving for truth. Ya think?

be a refreshing start!

won't touch it and there isn't a Democratic FOX equivalent.

Maybe a town meeting available afterwards on audio/video on the web, in maybe St. Louis.

the "liberal" MSM ignores the obvious again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601768.html

The webpage includes a PD link to the cable from US Ambassador to Iraq Kalmay Khalilzad.

Depresing stuff.

...have another:

stay the course!

And the "real beneficiaries" of this whole Iraq fiasco
are Bush crony war profiteers.

So much for democracy in Iraq.:eyes:

Fleece the taxpayers and line their pockets! Heckuvajob, bu$hco! Hey FReeps, don't you love being taken to the cleaners financially, by your own Party? What's that about a fool and his money?

"Cut Programs and Run Away with the People's Money" is the GOP mantra since day 1.

Clear and Short.

Just one more obvious parallel to the debacle we found ourselves in in Vietnam. only this time it will be much worse, if that's even possible.

Meanwhile, Bush keeps whistlin' that happy tune...

is going to involve some tragic massacre of U.S. troops. You can only hold back the tide for so long.

I mean what is the strategy in Iraq anymore? It seems that all the money (that isn't being pocketed) and all the resources flowing into this military venture are just serving to keep such a debacle at bay as long as possible. This is almost certainly going to go down as one of the greatest military blunders in history.

And once there's a crack in the facade, wouldn't that motivate Iran and others to press the advantage, and maybe attempt to "liberate" Iraq themselves?

When this is finished I hope a whole generation of Americans learns to view any talk of having a military presence on foreign soil as an unmentionable abuse of power. Not that that will matter much since the "military" will be entirely privatized before long...

That's not going to happen - the US troops have abandoned their duty of care to the Iraqi people, and so if they ever are put in such a situation, they're going to blow the shit out of the attacking Iraqis, and any other Iraqis in the area. The last thing the US military wants is more dead US troops. Dead Iraqis, on the other hand, are acceptable. It's a disgusting state of affairs.

Not a massacre in the sense of rounding up hundreds of Americans and shooting them, but I'm thinking a big-ass bomb eventually smuggled into the green zone. Or a lucky hit with a mortar on a PX or something. It hasn't happened yet, and that to me is straining the odds.

Every day we're there the odds of it happening go up. Every day is another chance to an attack. And with the public in Iraq turning more and more hateful, it has me very worried. I have been waiting with dread for a massive one-day death total. I am afraid that the US backlash of such an attack would turn Iraq's civil war from low-grade to high-grade, and that all of our troops would be in a firefight like in "Black Hawk Down", all across the country. A fight that would not involve a few platoons of special forces, but ten divisions of mostly non-combat troops hurridly snatching up arms and equipment and fighting their way to the desert so our air power could cover them and extract them in a reverse of the Berlin Airlift.

Call me a worry wart.

I wonder how many still feel this is the case?

From the insurgencies, to the civil war... I could write more, but we know the failures chapter and verse. All of these were things that people who understand the region said would happen. However, the Idiot in Chief and his cabal ignored those truths, trumped up the lies, and launched the illegal war against a sovereign country. There is NO justification for what Chimpy has done -- not Sadam, not WMD, not freeing the Iraqi people.

And yet, the killing goes on. The right paints the truth as "cutting and running," and today and tomorrow and the day after, more Americans and Iraqis will die for a lie. It makes me sick with rage.

There's a place at the Hague for Smirky & Company -- if the world had the balls to bring him to justice. But lacking those, we'll have to hope that there is a God, and that there is a Hell, and that God sees fit to find a special place in Hell for these bastards -- preferably in the same room as Sadam.

I'm coming to believe more every day that the only judgement these people will face is the judgement after life, and I'm not even religious.
If they don't face judgement for their transgressions then surely the families of these assholes will suffer for a thousand generations.

Republicans would rather"die for a lie" and "stay the course"?
Democrats would rather get out while they can an "live to be old".

GOOD BUMPER STICKER..."LIVE TO BE OLD" OR DIE FOR A LIE"?

Ha Ha made you laugh!

According to my ardent RW source on another board Mr. K was on Fox claiming the cable was taken out of context, and saying there was a lot of good news that was being ignored. I'm not sure if my source meant that Mr. K said there was good news in the cable, but that's what he implied. When I asked if Mr. K had implied that the cable had been edited or altered by WaPo he clammed up...

There sure as hell is no good news in that cable. It's the sort of news that would make any self-respecting proconsol toss his cookies.

Its away!!
Did it go in?
No, it just impacted on the surface.

The Rogue Squadron of Reality attacking the Death Star of Bush** World.

pontificated the clueless chimpanzee! (2003)

<Just a reminder to any lurking freepers> How's that workin' for 'ya?

IF our dear government can just stop all truth from being told, there will be no problem at all. I remember reading a few weeks ago that the pentagon is now "mum" on how many ready Iraqi units there are. First it was three, then two and now..oh nevermind.

Also if our government gets really good at the propaganda they could have postcards from Iraqi's sent to family members here saying how great Iraq is doing. I'm flashing back to the postcards the prisoners in concentration camps were forced to write in WW2. Our facsists are still not up to full speed. They can do better!

Bush is doing in the polls. People are turning against the war in growing numbers yet Rove knows there is still a complacent press to rely on.

The memo will be damaging, but sending Incurious George to Iraq to proclame how rosy life truly is there,(within the green zone only)will be duly reported by the corporate lapdogs we call news organizations as truth.

Funny, two troops kidnapped in an area WE call the Triangle of Death and Bush is trying to assure Americans Iraq is safer without Saddam.

....as hundreds of Vietnamese beg to be taken out of the country? But the Americans are leaving...they can't take everybody, even though they told those who worked for the U.S. would be taken care of....

I'm starting to envision a desert-style update of that scene.

Only the insurgents won't send anybody to re-education camp.
they'll just be chopping heads of...

I saw that musical in London in 1990, decades after I saw the real helicopter leave the American embassy on the evening news - and they did a powerful job of staging it, with a helicopter lowered from above, with horrendous racket of blades, and people screaming as they tried to get through the embassy fences/gates, and the terrible, painful guilty look of the last American to leave the roof and get in the chopper as it lifted off, leaving people screaming behind it.

...when leaders refuse to learn....I really, really hope I'm wrong about this. I don't want to see another such scene.

the MSM may have hit a wall with their lack of reporting.

It seems to be blowing wide open -

the only thing on the Snews so far has been

dead soldiers
beheaded soldiers
bad news in Iraq
Iraq memo
ruh-roh here comes the N. Korea problem

reporting the good news!"

I don't watch the MSM anymore but I assume they still have journalists in Iraq. Why aren't any of them reporting these things. Maybe they don't even leave their hotel rooms anymore because of the danger. Not that I could blame them, but on the other hand it seems like just a big facade if they aren't even investigating and then reporting the reality of the situation.

of "reporting the news" -- i.e., if you feel so constrained by the need to give equal play to all ideas about what is happening no matter how absurd, and if you feel so strongly that a reporter's "personal opinion" must be kept out of a story to the degree where even the most self-evident news analysis is prohibited. Then you can make a mockery of reporting the truth even as you pat yourself on the back about your journalism "ethics".

If I hear another journalist on CSpan or PBS or in some other "serious" venue praise the media for their high standards in reporting current events, I think I'll...

I think I'll...

hmmm...

I think I'll turn off the tube and go read a blog.