IRAQ: Police bust artifacts traffickers

Iraqi police have recovered stolen antiques, including the bust of a Sumerian king, in a sting operation.  An Iraqi commander said three suspects were arrested in Kirkuk after they tried to sell pieces from the Sumerian period that lasted from 4000 to 2000 BC.

"A specialist army and intelligence unit arrested three people involved in the theft and trafficking of Iraqi antiquities,” General Abdel Amir al-Zaidi told journalists.

The men were taken into custody after attempting to sell one of the eight stolen artifacts for $160,000 to an undercover officer posing as a buyer over the weekend.

"We received intelligence tips about a group trying to sell precious antiques in a small town called al-Abbasi. We formed an undercover intelligence team to meet the smugglers and pretend to be interested in buying the eight pieces," said General al-Zaidi.

The money from the art sting, he added, was to be used to finance “terrorist actions.”

IRAQ: Baghdad warns neighbors, airs militants' confessions on TV

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has turned the heat up on his Arab neighbors after last month’s double bombings at the foreign and finance ministries, which killed about 100 people. Maliki and his government have repeatedly accused Syria of providing shelter to those behind the blasts. Syria has denied the charge, and some Iraqi politicians have raised serious questions about whether Syria or the Baath Party was involved.

Today, Maliki once more slammed his neighbors. “We will continue looking [for a way] to close all the gaps and the doors from which the killers can breathe again. We censure the others from our brothers, friends and the neighborly countries,” Maliki said on a visit to the southern city of Karbala. “They used to say that they are with us and they did stand with us in certain situations, but how can we describe the practice of embracing the killers. To where will they be exported [next] time, to Iraq again or to a different country? Can the evil be contained to one specific country?” 

Maliki has asked the U.N. Security Council to establish a formal investigation into the bombings. He has also accused Syrian intelligence agents of sitting in on a meeting in July of Baath Party officials and Islamic militants. The government sees it as the latest episode in which Syria has allegedly been complicit in the activities of anti-Iraq militants. Iraqi security officials confirmed today that they had sent additional security forces to reinforce the vast Syria-Iraq border. 

Since the bombings, the government has revived the practice of showing taped confessions from alleged militants. Two confessions have been shown on state television and a third was aired at a news conference. The first confession was of an Iraqi arrested for the Aug. 19 attack, who blamed Baath Party leaders in Syria for planning the attack. The other confessions have shown foreign fighters recounting their alleged travels through Syria. There is no way to verify whether the taped remarks were genuine or staged.  But they mark a concerted effort to blame Syria in part for recent security breaches.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the state channel broadcast the purported confessions of an alleged fighter from Yemen named Mohammed Oud.

The following are excerpts from the broadcast:

IRAQ: Monthly death toll highest in over a year

Violence in Iraq produced the highest death toll in 13 months as August was marred by a series of suicide bombings in northern Iraq and a high-profile attack on two government ministries in Baghdad that stoked concerns that security was deteriorating with the removal of most U.S. forces from Iraqi cities and the approach of national elections in January.

A total of 456 people were killed in attacks in August, including 393 civilians, a number far lower than the figures at the height of Iraq’s civil war in 2006 and 2007 when Iraq’s monthly death toll sometimes soared past 2,000. 

But the attacks in August, as well as a similar spate of bombings that resulted in 290 civilians killed in April and 373 killed in June, have fed impressions in Iraq that security could unravel as the country’s political factions contend for power. It was the deadliest month since July 2008, when 465 Iraqis died violently.

 After the Aug. 19th suicide truck bombings on the Iraqi foreign and finance ministries, which left around 100 dead, government officials said Iraq’s security forces had been infiltrated. 

IRAQ: Baghdad-Damascus feud heats up again after bombings

Iraq and Syria continued to spar verbally after the Aug. 19 bombings at Baghdad’s finance and foreign ministries that killed about 100 people and prompted accusations from the Iraqi government that Damascus was harboring the masterminds of the attacks. 

Iraq has charged Syria with sheltering leaders from late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath party and with allowing other militants to operate inside its borders. The government broadcast footage a week ago of a suspected militant captured after the attacks who described receiving orders from Iraqi Baathists in Syria. 

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, shuttled between Baghdad and Damascus on Monday in an effort to contain the dispute between the two countries, who only renewed diplomatic relations three years ago.  

IRAQ: Faithful lay to rest Shiite political leader Abdelaziz Hakim

Thousands of Iraqis gathered Saturday for the funeral of Shiite leader Abdelaziz Hakim in the shrine city of Najaf in what amounted to a passing of the torch to his son and successor, Ammar Hakim.

The mourners carried pictures of Hakim and his son with banners that read: “Allegiance to Sayyed Ammar just like he announced his allegiance to Sayed [Grand Ayatollah Ali] Sistani.”

Abdelaziz Hakim, who died Wednesday of lung cancer in Iran,  leaves his party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, in a weakened state. The party was trounced in provincial elections in January, and has watched as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his party have eclipsed SIIC in popularity, with successes on the security front. Maliki was chosen for his post in 2006 largely because he was seen as someone who posed no threat to rival parties. 

IRAQ: Secret talks between Iraqi insurgents and American officials, Part 2

The 1920 Revolution Brigades issued a statement on Thursday in response to a Babylon and Beyond blog item last month about two meetings in Istanbul, Turkey, last spring between U.S. officials and a coalition of Sunni insurgent groups in Istanbul.  In the group's statement Thursday, the 1920 Revolution Brigades said that it had not participated in the Political Council for the Iraqi Resistance's talks with the Americans and described the previous blog post as "mistaken." Babylon and Beyond said that the 1920 Revolution Brigades belongs to the umbrella group of Sunni insurgents, the Political Council for the Iraqi Resistance, that held the meetings with the Americans this spring.  

 

In its statement Thursday, the 1920 Revolution Brigades said that now was not the time for negotiations with the U.S. government or military. It referred to a previous statement it had issued on its stance regarding the Istanbul talks with the Americans: "This stage for the conflict between us and the enemy does not require to negotiate with him but requires to increase the momentum of the strikes to force him to comply to our terms and withdraw from our land."

 --  Ned Parker in Los Angeles

IRAQ: Smokers dismayed by tough anti-smoking legislation

With bombings and shootings still taking place on a daily basis, Iraq is not a country where people pay much heed to the health hazards of smoking.

So news that the government plans to introduce a stringent, Western-style anti-smoking law has been greeted with surprise, and considerable dismay by Iraqis accustomed to lighting up wherever and whenever they choose.

The draft law includes a ban on smoking in cafes, restaurants, clubs, and government and private offices, all places where life currently unfolds amid clouds of cigarette smoke. Penalties of $2,500 to $4,200 will be applied to violators.

"Maybe if we were leading normal lives I would consider giving up smoking," said Haidar Latif, 40, as he puffed on a cigarette in one of Baghdad's cafes. "But we are facing tough times. Our minds are tired and we need to smoke."

IRAQ: Three American hikers held in Iran made a 'mistake'

An account posted on the website of Mother Jones aims to shed light on the questions of how and why three American hikers in Iraq's Kurdistan region ended up straying across the border into Iran, where they have been in detention for the last week.

Written by Shon Meckfessel, the fourth member of the group who stayed behind at their hotel because he had a cold, it says the trio had no idea the beauty spot they were visiting was close to the border.

The three, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, certainly did not intend to wander into Iran, and are guilty of nothing more than "a simple and very regrettable mistake," he writes.

IRAQ: Killer of prominent TV journalist confesses

A member of an extremist Sunni group has confessed to the 2006 rape and murder of prominent Iraqi TV reporter Atwar Bahjat, whose brutal death at the height of the sectarian violence shocked even battle-scarred Iraqis.

The confession was made in a videotape broadcast at a press conference today. Suspect Yasser al-Takhi described how he and three others abducted and killed Bahjat and her two-man crew, Adnan Abdullah and Khaled Mohsen, in the central Iraqi town of Samarra.

His two brothers also confessed to killing Abdullah and Mohsen.

Bahjat, who worked for the Arabiya TV network, had gone to Samarra to report on the aftermath of the bombing of a Shiite shrine that ignited a mass campaign of killings against Sunnis by Shiite militiamen.

Her bravery as a journalist at a time when few reporters dared move around touched hearts across Iraq and her death turned her into a national heroine. Moments before the network lost touch with her, she had reported live from the scene, noticeably wearing a gold pendant depicting a map of Iraq around her neck – a symbol widely adopted at the time by Iraqis lamenting the disintegration of their nation into sectarian strife.

Takhi said that the group drove the news team to a side street where he raped and shot Bahjat. His brothers killed Abdullah and Mohsen.

IRAQ: Interview with Kurdish candidate Barham Salih, deputy prime minister

The Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who have jointly ruled Kurdistan for the last 18 years, are facing the first real political challenge to their monopoly on power in Saturday's regional government elections. A newly formed opposition movement called Change has galvanized Kurds frustrated with high levels of corruption and poor services, and hopes to win a sizable number of seats.

On the eve of the poll, the Los Angeles Times sat down with the PUK's Barham Salih, Iraq's deputy prime minister, who heads a joint PUK-KDP list of candidates known as the Kurdistani list. If the list wins, it is likely he will become the region's next prime minister. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Q: You're facing a big challenge from the Change movement. Are you worried?

A: For parties who have been in power for 18 years, one has to expect that there will be big challenges. People have certain questions, legitimate questions. There is opposition that is trying to ride a wave of discontent, displeasure with some of the shortcomings of the situation. So it is definitely a challenge.

But I think we have conducted a very good campaign. We have managed to convey a message that what we have achieved so far is impressive … and that the platform we have adopted is a reformist platform that will take care of the shortcomings and some of the problems that we encountered.

The most important thing is that the process is competitive and proves the maturity of the Kurdish democratic process. I am very hopeful that this will have implications for Kurdish politics, for Iraqi politics and will establish pluralistic democracy in a far more profound way than we have seen in the past.

Q: You admit that there have been shortcomings in the performance of the current government. What are they?