"Iraq Occupation Failures And Solutions"
Bishop held hostage is laid to rest
Still not clear if he was killed by captors or died of an illness
 | Iraqi Christians carry the coffin of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho during his funeral in the northern Iraqi Christian village of Kremlis on Friday. |
BAGHDAD - Carrying flowers and olive branches, mourners wept and wailed as they carried a wooden coffin holding the body of one of Iraq's most senior Chaldean Catholic clerics for a proper burial in northern Iraq on Friday.
Leading the procession down the streets of a village outside Mosul was a church official who held a wooden cross with Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's picture. Rahho's body was found Thursday in a shallow grave just weeks after he was kidnapped.
"He was a man of honesty, loyalty and peace," Iraqi Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly said during a nearly hourlong funeral Mass. "He was loved by all Iraqi people."
Pope Benedict XVI, President Bush and Iraq's prime minister all deplored the attack. U.S. officials in Baghdad also issued a statement Friday, calling it "one more savage attempt by a barbaric enemy to sow strife and discord."
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians have been targeted by Islamic extremists who label them "crusaders" loyal to U.S. troops.
Militants have attacked churches, priests and businesses owned by Christians, many of whom have fled the country in a trend mirrored across the Islamic world.
Rahho, 65, was seized on Feb. 29 in Mosul, a city the U.S. military considers the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq. Three of his aides were killed during the kidnapping, the latest in a series of attacks on Iraq's small Christian community.
It was not immediately clear if Rahho was killed or if he died of an illness while in captivity. The archbishop had recently undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from his leg, according to church officials speaking on condition of anonymity for security concerns.
A Mosul morgue official, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said Rahho had not been shot.
The official said police found the body in an early stage of decomposition under a thin layer of dirt just north of the city, suggesting Rahho had been dead several days.
There have been no claims of responsibility for the kidnapping or death.
The Chaldean church is an Eastern-rite denomination aligned with the Roman Catholic Church that recognizes the authority of the pope. Chaldean Catholics make up a tiny minority of the current Iraqi population but are the largest group among the less than 1 million Christians in Iraq, according to last year's International Religious Freedom Report from the U.S. State Department.
On Friday, there were few reports of violence elsewhere in Iraq. Two suicide car bombs exploded within seconds of each other at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Mosul, killing three and wounding five civilians, police said.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23635635/
U.N. takeover in Iraq 'would allow U.S. to leave'
Group of Iraqi elites says move offers alternative to country's 'dark future'
BAGHDAD - A group of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals appealed Wednesday to the United Nations to take control of Iraq in a move they say would help U.S. troops leave the beleaguered country.
Both the U.S. administration and the Baghdad government are unlikely to endorse the request, which was addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and delivered to the Cairo offices of the organization.
"We believe that the only opportunity left for Iraq to be saved from a dark, but not inevitable future, is to engage the international community represented by the United Nations," the letter said. "Such a step will allow the American troops to leave and the occupation to be brought to its end."
The group's coordinators include Adeeb al-Jadir, Ahmed Al-Haboubi and Nouri Abdel Razak Hussein, politicians overthrown in 1968 when Saddam Hussein's Baath party came to power and long part of the liberal anti-regime opposition prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The U.N. dramatically curtailed its operations in Iraq after an August 2003 suicide attack killed its representative and scores of others. The United States has been pushing for an expanded U.N. role in Iraq but that did not include supervising the country.
The Iraqi group said the world body should supervise a new security plan to restore order during a transitional period and prepare for new elections of a government to replace Nouri al-Maliki's troubled cabinet.
Representatives for the campaign will travel to the U.N. headquarters in New York to seek support from key members, said al-Haboubi, a former government minister.
"We are also ready to discuss our proposals with U.S. officials," he said.
The men said the petition was signed by dozens of Iraqi dignitaries and they had scores of supporters in Iraq who preferred to rename anonymous for know to avoid harassment.
'Unjustified killings' legal move
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government on Wednesday announced a committee formed to explore ways citizens could sue U.S. forces involved in "unjustified killings," according to the prime minister's office.
The U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. military acknowledged that a roadside bomb targeting a passing U.S. convoy had struck near a passenger bus, a day after initially claiming no one died in the attack.
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner could not confirm the number of casualties, but said no U.S. forces were involved in any gunfire that followed.
"We are still working with Iraqi security forces, and those now investigating the detailed circumstances of that attack, to learn whatever else we can," Bergner said.
Dr. Hadi Badr al-Riyahi, head of the Nasiriyah provincial health directorate, confirmed that the attack on the bus traveling from Najaf to Basra killed 16 civilians and wounded 20 about 50 miles south of Nasiriyah.
At the time of the attack, a local policeman and the assistant bus driver also said 16 people were killed on the bus, which was riddled with holes that appeared to be caused by shrapnel or bullets.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23593105/
Iraq oil revenue soars, creating huge surplus
But U.S. still investing billions in rebuilding, facing squeeze at home
WASHINGTON - Iraq is not spending much of its own money, despite soaring oil revenues that are pushing the country toward a massive budget surplus, U.S. auditors told Congress on Tuesday.
The expected surplus comes as the U.S. continues to invest billions of dollars in rebuilding Iraq and faces a financial squeeze domestically because of record oil prices.
"The Iraqis have a budget surplus," said U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "We have a huge budget deficit. ... One of the questions is who should be paying."
Walker and the other auditors did not give a figure for the likely surplus. U.S. officials contend that Iraq's lack of spending is due primarily to Baghdad's inability to determine where its money is needed most and how to allocate it efficiently. Two senators have called for an investigation into the matter.
Democrats say the assessment is proof that the Iraq war as a waste of time and money. The U.S. has spent more than $45 billion on rebuilding Iraq. And while officials in Iraq contend that much progress is being made, many projects remain unfinished and U.S. troops are still needed to provide security.
"They ought to be able to use some of their oil to pay for their own costs and not keep sending the bill to the United States," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat.
In recent months, Iraq experienced its highest oil production and export levels since the war began five years ago, said Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
That spike in revenue combined with the highest oil prices in history, "coalesce into an enormous revenue windfall for the Iraqi government," Bowen told the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Whereas Iraqi officials estimated $35 billion in oil revenues last fall, Bowen said the final number is likely to be closer to $60 billion.
"That certainly gives them resources to carry forward with an extensive reconstruction plan," Bowen said.
But according to other U.S. officials, a major problem is that Iraq does not have the capacity to allocate the money without it being wasted or pocketed by corrupt officials.
"I think they are beginning to do more," particularly in improving its military and buying new weapon systems, said Claude Kicklighter, the Pentagon's inspector general. "And I think that's certainly the trend that we should be following."
'U.S. taxpayer money is involved'
The Government Accountability Office estimates that the U.S. has designated $6 billion to rebuild Iraq's energy sector and $300 million to develop Iraq's government ministries. But GAO contends that the U.S. does not have a strategic plan on how to accomplish either goal.
The State Department told investigators it believes the Iraqis should be responsible for devising such a plan. GAO disagreed.
"In our view, it's a shared responsibility. U.S. taxpayer money is involved," Walker said.
Last week, Sens. Carl Levin, a Democrat, and John Warner, a Republican, asked GAO to investigate what Iraq is doing with its oil revenue. The senators estimated that Iraq will realize "at least $100 billion in oil revenues in 2007 and 2008."
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23578542/
One of the most egregious failures in the Iraq occupation, in my opinion, is the failure to protect Iraqi Christians. These Arab Christians have existed for centuries and ironically were protected by Saddam Hussein. America is supposed to be a Christian nation and there should have been "hell to pay" for any Muslims attacking or persecuting Christians, at least under American occupation. When will America understand that an important solution to the problems of Iraq would be a democracy loving Saddam Hussein type "strongman" or a Wyatt Earp type "lawman" who will use violence in the short term to restore law and order. The corruption within the Iraqi government itself is killing Iraq. Corruption would cease if the consequences of corruption were fatal. Neither America nor the UN have the heart to do what needs to be done in Iraq at the moment. In all probability only after a Civil War will security and order return to Iraq. America needs to withdraw from Iraq and let "Nature take it's course".
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