12 December Iraq Special Weapons News |
Operations
Deployments
US Policy
United Nations
Reconstruction Issues
Foreign Reactions
News Reports
Current Operations
- OIF/OEF Casualty Update 12 Dec 2003 [PDF]
Deployments
- Much-Deployed Guard, Reserve 'Doing A Superb Job,' Rumsfeld Says AFPS 12 Dec 2003 -- The Defense Department's top civilian today praised reserve and National Guard members serving in the global war on terrorism, while acknowledging some of that force is being stretched by multiple deployments.
US Policy
- Baker's Experience Will Help Promote Debt Relief for Iraq, Bush Says Washington File 13 Dec 2003 -- White House Report, Dec. 12: Baker trip, Halliburton, the Mideast peace process, Canada
- State's Armitage Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Transfer of Power in Iraq Washington File 13 Dec 2003 -- The United States is fully committed to realizing a transition of sovereignty to an Iraqi governing body by the end of June, according to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
United Nations
Reconstruction Issues
- Iraq Prepared to Undertake First National Demining Campaign Washington File 13 Dec 2003 -- The U.S. State Department, in cooperation with the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Department of Defense, has established the apparatus for Iraq's first comprehensive national demining program according to a December 12 State Department media note.
- PENTAGON /IRAQ VOA 12 Dec 2003 -- President Bush says the Pentagon is investigating whether a subsidiary of a company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney overcharged the government for work it performed in Iraq. An investigation is under way after a Pentagon audit found that a firm associated with the Texas-based Halliburton company may have overcharged the government by more than 60 million dollars for fuel delivered to Iraq.
- PENTAGON/IRAQ VOA 12 Dec 2003 -- U-S Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is denying the Pentagon paid too much for work performed by a company in Iraq that has political connections to the White House. Correspondent Nick Simeone reports his comments follow a Defense Department audit, which found a subsidiary of the Halliburton oil services company may have overcharged the government by more than 60-million-dollars for fuel delivered to Iraq.
- IRAQ/MOSQUE VOA 12 Dec 2003 -- Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims in one Baghdad neighborhood are trying to avert sectarian violence by forming a committee to defuse new tensions in their shared community. They have lived side-by-side for years, but this week's attack on a Sunni mosque has enraged the Sunni residents of the neighborhood.
Foreign Reactions
- IRAQ: 'RECONSTRUCTION ROW' REOPENS OLD WOUNDS US Dept. of State IIP, Foreign media Reaction 12 Dec 2003
- UK denies visa for top Iraqi nuclear scientist IRNA 12 Dec 2003 -- The British government is refusing to say why it has refused a visa to former Iraqi top nuclear scientist, Jafar Dhia Jafar, to attend a meeting at the Royal Society, the UK`s independent scientific academy.
- EU leaders underline pivotal UN role in Iraq IRNA 12 Dec 2003 -- European Union leaders reiterated Friday the European bloc`s commitment to support the political as well as the economic reconstruction of Iraq, within the framework of the relevant UNSC Resolutions.
News Reports
- US-IRAQ VOA 12 Dec 2003 -- Mr. Charlie Cray, director of the Center for Corporate Policy, and Mr. Radek Sikorski, Executive Director of the New Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute, discuss the Bush administration's decision to ban countries opposed to the war on Iraq from bidding for reconstruction projects in that country.
- MILITARY FAMILIES / IRAQ VOA 12 Dec 2003 -- An anti-war coalition of U-S military families and veterans is calling on the United States to withdraw from Iraq. Correspondent Jenny Falcon reports from New York, a group of families and veterans recently returned from a trip to Iraq, where the met with coalition and Iraqi provisional government officials.
- 2003 & Beyond: For U.S., Iraq Likely To Remain A 'Long, Hard Slog' RFE/RL 12 Dec 2003 -- Nine months ago, when U.S. cruise missiles and precision bombs began raining down on Baghdad in the war's first salvos, the United States might never have imagined where it would be today -- mired in a bloody quagmire, with no easy exit in sight. Despite new plans to hand over power next year, Washington is facing a hardening guerrilla movement.
- Iraq: Desert Travel Is Not For The Faint Of Heart RFE/RL 12 Dec 2003 -- Journalists, aid workers, and diplomats are attacked and robbed on Iraqi roadways on a nearly daily basis. With no reliable bank services in the war-torn country, many foreigners are forced to travel with large amounts of cash and no way to defend themselves. With insecurity the only certainty in Iraq, a thief with a fast car and machine guns has become the king of the road.
