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Current Operations

• Transcript: Coalition Provisional Authority Press Briefing CENTCOM - CPA 11 Nov 2003 -- "During the last few weeks, the pace and intensity of our offensive military operations has increased. We are taking the fight into the safe havens of the enemy, in the heartland of the country, where we continue to face former regime loyalists, criminals and foreign terrorists who are trying to isolate the coalition from the Iraqi people and trying to break the will of the coalition and the international community. They will fail. Not surprisingly, the enemy has reacted to our operations and our progress with increased violence, especially in the localized areas that benefited from the plunder and oppression of the former regime. The enemy has increasingly embraced terrorist acts. These acts are designed to attract media attention, to intimidate the Iraqi people, and, just as importantly, to create a picture of chaos in the country. The stark reality is that militarily, they cannot defeat us, and they know it. I remain supremely confident in this reality."
• Enemy Will Not Break Coalition's Will, Sanchez Says AFPS 11 Nov 2003 -- Anti-coalition forces "will fail" to break the will of the coalition and of the vast majority of the Iraqi people, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said in Baghdad, Iraq, today.
• IRAQ / MOSUL VOA 11 Nov 2003 -- The northern Iraqi city of Mosul has seen dozens of attacks on U-S troops in recent weeks, sparking fear that anti-coalition violence has spread northward from Saddam Hussein supporters' strongholds in the so-called Sunni Triangle, north and west of Baghdad.
• Iraq: Al-Basrah Bomb Kills At Least Four Iraqis RFE/RL 11 Nov 2003 -- Iraqi police say a bomb planted on a road in the southern city of Al-Basrah exploded today, killing at least four Iraqis.
• IRAQ / SANCHEZ VOA 11 Nov 2003 -- The American commander of ground forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, says the U-S military is trying to determine the presence of the al-Qaida terrorist network in Iraq. The general is vowing to escalate the war on insurgents and terrorists who have unleashed a wave of violence across the country in recent weeks.

Deployments

• MILITARY SAFETY VOA 11 Nov 2003 -- As people around the United States celebrate Veteran's Day, thousands of U-S troops continue to face danger in Iraq and Afghanistan. At one of the biggest U-S military bases, Fort Hood in central Texas, thousands of troops are preparing for deployment to Iraq early next year and they are putting their main emphasis on safety.

US Policy

• General Wesley Clark Outlines Success Strategy in Iraq November 6, 2003 -- We are now more deeply involved in Iraq than we have been in any foreign country since Vietnam. Failure in Iraq will not only be a tragedy for Iraq. It will be a disaster for America and the world. It would give the terrorists of Al Qaeda a new base of operations, and a victory against America. It would weaken our moral authority, destroy respect for our power in the Middle East, and throw this region, the source of so many of the world's problems, into greater turmoil. No matter how difficult it will be, we cannot shirk from our duty. There can be no substitute for success. Every American should understand: early exit means retreat or defeat. There can be neither. Success means that Iraq is strong enough to sustain itself without substantial outside forces, but not so strong as to threaten its neighbors.... The French are wrong: we cannot transfer full authority to Iraqis before they are ready. ... We would still have a leading role - but you can't be a leader if no one comes along - you're not a leader if you're all alone. ... In a Clark Administration, there won't be any question about whether the State Department drives policy, or the Pentagon drives policy, or the national security advisor drives policy. In a Clark Administration, the President will drive the policy.
• A Real Plan for Success in Iraq When the President flew out to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and posed under the banner that read: "mission accomplished," he made it clear he did not understand the scope of the mission. We need a success strategy. Only success that can honor the sacrifice of so many American men and women; it is only success that will allow Iraq to stand on its own; and it is only success that will allow our soldiers to come home. Early exit means retreat or defeat. Wes Clark has a plan to internationalize the reconstruction, counter the terrorists' guerilla war more effectively, and give Iraqis a greater stake in our own success.
• Bush Says Afghanistan, Iraq Will be "Milestone in History of Liberty" Washington File 11 Nov 2003 -- Democracy will ultimately succeed in both Afghanistan and Iraq, President George W. Bush asserted in a speech on November 11. "And that success will be a great milestone in the history of liberty," he said in remarks to the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.
• Major Terror War Feat Is Liberating 51 Million People, Rumsfeld Says AFPS 11 Nov 2003 -- The only "exit strategy" for U.S. forces in Iraq is success, but the coalition is well on its way to achieving that aim, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today.
• Rice Asserts That Iraqi Security Forces Are Key to Coalition Strategy Washington File 11 Nov 2003 -- The U.S. and coalition forces have trained almost 118,000 Iraqis to provide security and defend their own country from remnants of the old regime and foreign terrorists, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said in one of a series of television interviews November 10.
• Iraq Can Be "Linchpin" for Democracy in Middle East, Rice Says Washington File 11 Nov 2003 -- Helping bring stability and democracy to Iraq is a great cause that can transform the Middle East and reduce the threat of terrorism, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said in one of a series television interviews November 10.
• Rice: "Iraq is the Central Front in War on Terrorism" Washington File 11 Nov 2003 -- Iraq is now the central front in the war against global terrorism, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said in one of a series of television news interviews November 10.
• BUSH / IRAQ VOA 11 Nov 2003 -- President Bush says the enemies of freedom will be defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a Veterans' Day speech the president vowed tyranny will not return to these two troubled countries.

United Nations

• Iraq: UN Baghdad staff, headquarters team begin thorough security review UN News Centre 11 Nov 2003 -- United Nations international staff withdrawn from Baghdad last week and a team from UN New York headquarters began a thorough review in Cyprus today of future operations in Iraq and the security arrangements that will be required.

Reconstruction Issues

• IRAQ / RECOVERED ARTIFACTS VOA 11 Nov 2003 -- Museum officials in Baghdad say Iraqi policemen and U-S soldiers have recovered two of the most important artifacts stolen by looters following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Foreign Reactions

• NATO-PA PRESIDENT CALLS FOR ALLIANCE ROLE IN IRAQ NATO Parliamentary Assembly 11 Nov 2003 -- Stating that he believed tensions between Europe and the United States over Iraq were in the past, the President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO-PA), US Congressman Doug Bereuter, called today (Tuesday) for the alliance to play a larger role in the post-war interim administration.
• JAPAN IRAQ TROOPS VOA 11 Nov 2003 -- The Japanese government has decided to delay dispatching troops to Iraq to support the reconstruction effort there. The Japanese government says the mission will likely go ahead next year.
• 88 percent of Germans say Bush`s Iraq policy failed: survey IRNA 11 Nov 2003 -- Some 88 percent of Germans said the Iraq policy of United States President George W. Bush has failed, six months after the war has ended, according to an opinion poll released Tuesday by the private television news network N-TV.

News Reports

• Iraq: Life In Northern Provinces Seems A World Away From War-Torn Center RFE/RL 11 Nov 2003 -- The city of Irbil is at the center of Iraq's Kurdish-controlled northern provinces, whose residents were brutalized for years by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Following the 1991 Gulf War, the region was protected by a "no-fly" zone patrolled by U.S. and British war planes.
• IRAQ: Humanitarian supplies for Iraq continue IRIN 11 Nov 2003 -- The Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) is continuing to deliver supplies for internally displaced people in Iraq, with yet another convoy leaving for the turbulent nation over last weekend.