Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)


03 February 2005 - Iraq Special Weapons News

Operations
Deployments
US Policy
United Nations
Reconstruction Issues
Foreign Reactions
News Reports

Current Operations

  • OIF/OEF Casualty Update 03 Feb 2005 [PDF]
  • A SECOND MARINE KILLED IN AL ANBAR PROVINCE

  • Transcript: DoD News Briefing 03 Feb 2005 -- Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Also participating; Gen. Peter Pace, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • IRAQ/MILITARY VOA 03 Feb 2005 -- Iraq's interior minister says security forces nearly captured the insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi two or three times, missing him by just about an hour in one instance. The minister says other U.S. and Iraqi raids have weakened the insurgency, but he expects attacks to continue.
  • Army helping build new Iraq border posts Army News 03 Feb 2005 -- An estimated $25 million is being spent to construct 100 new border forts along the northern borders of Iraq, as well as rehabilitate and enhance numerous points of entry.

Deployments

  • Lejeune Marines return home from deployment in Iraq USMC News 04 Feb 2005 -- After seven months battling insurgents in Iraq, approximately 850 Marines with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment returned to a cheering crowd of family and friends here Jan. 28-30.

US Policy

  • Transcript: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Live Interview with CNN Larry King 03 Feb 2005 -- Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
  • RUMSFELD / IRAQ VOA 03 Feb 2005 -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says Sunday's election in Iraq was important in giving the Iraqi people the confidence to move forward in building strong security forces and a democratic society.
  • Rice-Europe-Iraq VOA 03 Feb 2005 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in London on the initial leg of her first overseas trip, an eight-day mission to Europe and the Middle East. She says he will try to rally European support for a democratic Iraq, and to add to new momentum toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
  • Rumsfeld, Pace Praise Troops for Successful Iraqi Elections AFPS 03 Feb 2005 -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff used today's Pentagon briefing as a forum to publicly thank U.S. servicemembers for their role in the successful Iraqi elections and ongoing progress in the global war on terror.
  • Rumsfeld: World Must Continue to Stand by Iraq AFPS 03 Feb 2005 -- Now that millions of Iraqis have defied insurgents' threats and gone to the polls to elect their new government, it's up to the rest of the world to continue standing by them as they build their democratic future, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters here today.
  • Iraqi Security Forces Top Armed Services Hearing Agenda AFPS 03 Feb 2005 -- "The coalition must focus our efforts on reaching the point where we can shift our mission to fighting the counterinsurgency ourselves to developing Iraqi capacity to conduct those operations," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee today.
  • Defense Department Report, February 3: Iraq Update Washington File 03 Feb 2005 -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the goal is for Iraqis, not coalition forces, to provide the secure environment that the country needs.

United Nations

  • Interim Report Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme 3 Feb 2005 [PDF 3.26 Mb]
  • SECRETARY-GENERAL INITIATES DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST OFFICIALS NAMED IN OIL-FOR-FOOD INQUIRY, PLEDGES COOPERATION WITH ANY CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS United Nations 03 Feb 2005
  • Acting on Oil-for-Food report, Annan takes disciplinary action, further management steps UN News Centre 03 Feb 2005 -- Reaffirming his pledge to act resolutely on any findings of staff misconduct in connection with the United Nations Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced that he had initiated disciplinary proceedings against officials involved in the operation and was taking broader management measures in response to the release earlier in the day of a report by an independent panel looking into the management of the now-defunct relief effort.
  • Top UN envoy stresses need for all Iraqis to take part in shaping country's future UN News Centre 03 Feb 2005 -- The top United Nations envoy for Iraq today stressed the need for all Iraqis to take part in shaping their country's future as he continued talks with political leaders following Sunday's elections in which voter turnout in Sunni areas was particularly low after boycott calls and ongoing violence.
  • UN/Oil-For-Food Probe VOA 03 Feb 2005 -- A panel investigating the United Nations' Iraq oil-for food program has charged the head of the program with a "grave conflict of interest that undermined the world body's integrity." Secretary-General Kofi Annan has pledged to punish the program chief and another official named in the probe.
  • VOLCKER/OIL-FOR-FOOD VOA 03 Feb 2005 -- A United Nations-appointed panel investigating the Iraq oil-for-food program says it found conclusive evidence of gross mismanagement and conflict of interest by a senior U.N. official.
  • Annan receives report on alleged improprieties in Iraqi Oil-for-Food programme UN News Centre 03 Feb 2005 -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today received an interim report from the independent panel he appointed last year to probe alleged mismanagement and misconduct in the multi-billion dollar Oil-for-Food programme which the world body administered to bring food and medicines to sanctions-bound Iraq.

Reconstruction Issues

  • Iraq Humanitarian and Reconstruction Assistance Updates USAID 03 Feb 2005 [PDF]
  • Transcript: Special Defense Department Briefing 03 Feb 2005 -- Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib
  • Iraq Likely to Assume Full Security Role Within 18 Months AFPS 03 Feb 2005 -- Iraq's security forces are expected to be ready to assume full responsibility for their country's security in about 18 months, Iraq's minister of the interior told Pentagon reporters today via teleconference from Baghdad.
  • U.S. Customs and Border Agents Help Secure Iraq's Borders Washington File 03 Feb 2005 -- The United States has deployed another team of customs and border patrol agents to Iraq and surrounding countries to help prevent saboteurs, terrorists and weapons from crossing Iraq's borders, according to a February 1 press release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
  • IRAQ / SUNNIS VOA 03 Feb 2005 -- Following the low turnout of Sunni Arab voters in Iraq's national elections Sunday, former Iraqi Governing Council member, Adnan Pachachi, says he has initiated conciliatory talks with Sunni Arab groups that did not take part in the balloting. As Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from Baghdad, the secular Sunni Arab elder statesman worries that the credibility of the elected national assembly and the constitution it drafts may be greatly diminished without Sunni-Arab participation.

Foreign Reactions

News Reports