1.

Q& A: troubled constitution

SUNNIS SET OUT TO SABOTAGE DRAFT PLAN FOR IRAQ
By Oliver Poole

Telegraph (UK)
August 24, 2005

Original source: Telegraph (UK)

Iraq's Sunnis displayed a new found enthusiasm for politics yesterday as thousands who boycotted January's election queued to register to vote.

Rather than democracy in action, this was a backlash against it, for the Sunnis were attempting to sabotage the draft constitution submitted to parliament on Monday night. Their religious, political and tribal leaders have already railed against the document, warning of the risk that it will "break up" the country.

With Shia and Kurdish delegates threatening to force the draft through parliament over Sunni protests, taking part in this October's constitutional referendum is now the Sunnis' best hope of killing the document.

Under voting rules, if two thirds of ballots cast in any three provinces oppose the constitution, it will fail. Sunnis have such a potential majority in four of Iraq's 18 provinces.

In Samarra, an insurgent center 60 miles north of Baghdad, lines stretched down the road as local Sunnis appeared to accept that their refusal to vote in January had led to them being marginalized in parliament. "We came here to register our names as we should not commit a mistake as we did before," Hameed Hassan said as he waited to add his name to the list.

Police outside the registration center in the Sunni-dominated Jazair district of Baghdad said people had started to arrive shortly after the office opened at 8am.

Many were following the instruction of the clerics at their mosque who had instructed them to cast a vote against the constitution and "tell 10 other people to do so."

The proposed constitution would transform Iraq from the highly centralized state ruled by Saddam Hussein into a loose federation of Kurds, Shiites, and Sunni Arabs.

The Sunnis, who under Saddam dominated the country, fear the new Iraq will deprive them of a fair share of wealth from its oil, little of which is located where they are, and leave them powerless. Theoretically, there is still time for their concerns to be heeded in continuing negotiations on the constitution's wording.

Despite receiving a draft on Monday, the national assembly's speaker delayed a vote to approve it for three days to see if Sunni fears could be addressed.

But a brief sitting yesterday illustrated the unlikelihood of a consensus. One Sunni negotiator, Saleh al-Mutlak, said irreconcilable divisions remained, and predicted "an uprising on the streets."

He said: "We will campaign to reject the constitution which has elements in it that will lead to civil war."

Shia and Kurd leaders appear increasingly fatalistic and indicated that tomorrow the constitution will be pushed through parliament and its future left for voters to decide. It was largely drawn up by their delegates and reflects their priorities, primarily the desire for semi-autonomy in the Kurdish north and Shia south as well as Shia demands for Iraq to become largely an Islamic state.

Laith Kubba, the government's official spokesman, said: "After a long discussion, this is the best we could get. The Iraqi people can accept or reject this new constitution."

One potent threat now facing the growing Sunni campaign to defeat the document at the ballot box comes from Abu Musab Zarqawi, the fundamentalist Sunni terrorist responsible for many of the worst outrages committed in Iraq in the past two years.

He and other leading groups have repeatedly threatened to kill any Sunnis participating in the political process and promised to bomb polling booths.

Last week three Sunnis putting up posters in Mosul calling on people to register were kidnapped, their bullet-riddled bodies later found dumped outside a mosque.

2.

World

INSURGENTS ATTACK POLICE CHECKPOINTS

** 5 killed, 31 wounded in Baghdad, police say **

CNN
August 24, 2005

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/24/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD -- Insurgents launched a sophisticated and well-coordinated strike against police checkpoints in Baghdad on Wednesday that left five dead and at least 31 wounded, police said.

Thirty to 40 insurgents in civilian cars fired two rocket-propelled grenades targeting police patrols at a checkpoint, striking vehicles. Initially, police mistakenly thought a car bomb had been detonated.

Using RPGs, hand-held grenades, AK-47s, and machine guns stashed in their vehicles, the insurgents attacked police at other checkpoints.

Among those killed were two police officers. Seven police were wounded.

Fighting between police and insurgents lasted about 90 minutes. Police said they killed at least one insurgent and wounded two others, who were arrested.

After the fighting, security forces went house to house looking for insurgents.

One of the injured insurgents was from nearby Amriya, where the insurgency has support, and the other was from Haifa Street, a stretch of Baghdad where anti-U.S. sentiment is popular.

The afternoon attack occurred in the Sunni Arab neighborhood of Jamiaa, near other insurgent strongholds, where violence has taken place in the past.

It differed from more surreptitious drive-by shootings, roadside bombings, and car bombings that have become commonplace in the capital.

Earlier, Iraq's deputy minister of justice, Awshoo Ibrahim, escaped an assassination attempt in a western Baghdad neighborhood, police said.

Gunmen opened fire on his convoy along a major highway in the Adil neighborhood around 10 a.m. (2 a.m. ET).

Four of Ibrahim's bodyguards were killed in the attack and five others were wounded. Two vehicles were also destroyed.

On Tuesday, a suicide bombing killed seven people, including two Americans in Baquba.

A U.S. soldier from Task Force Liberty, a U.S. civilian contractor, and five Iraqis -- four center employees and a police officer -- died in the strike on the Diyala Provincial Joint Coordination Center.

Among the wounded were nine Task Force Liberty soldiers, one U.S. civilian contractor, six Iraqi civilians, and four Iraqi police officers.

The death brought the total of U.S. military killed in the war to 1,871 and the number of Americans killed in August to 73.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

A U.N. agency Wednesday said the marshlands in southern Iraq -- nearly ruined under the Saddam Hussein regime -- have been making a "phenomenal" recovery, with the wetlands bouncing back to nearly 40 percent of the area they covered in the 1970s. The region -- which had been regarded as "a key natural habitat for people, wildlife and fisheries" -- had been "damaged significantly since the 1970s, due to upstream dam construction and drainage operations" by the former regime, according to the U.N. Environmental Program.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed concerns that the disputes over Iraq's constitution could lead to a civil war between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. "People have been moving together, talking, discussing things," Rumsfeld said.

--CNN's Kianne Sadeq contributed to this report.

3.

U.S.

RUMSFELD: IRAQ NOT FATED TO CIVIL WAR

** Insurgents not nationalists; Iraq not Vietnam, Pentagon chief says **

CNN
August 23, 2005

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/23/rumsfeld.iraq/index.html

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday tried to dispel concern over the possibility that a civil war could erupt in Iraq between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs.

"People have been moving together, talking, discussing things," Rumsfeld said. "You can always find someone who's going to try to be a dead-ender and say, 'If you don't do this, I won't do that.' But that's part of negotiation. We see that in the Congress and we see it in democratic systems all over the world."

His remarks came amid a report that a Sunni Arab official believes civil conflict could arise from differences over the draft constitution.

Although lawmakers handed over a draft to the national assembly Monday night, a gulf of disagreements remain between Shiite Arabs, who prevail in the transitional government, and Sunni Arabs, who prevailed under Saddam Hussein.

Iraq's interim prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said he expected negotiators to resolve those differences within a self-imposed three-day deadline.

Rumsfeld praised the constitution-writing effort, saying "democracy has never been described as speedy, efficient or perfect."

"And, regrettably, completing the constitution is not likely to end all the violence in Iraq or solve all of the country's problems," he added.

Rumsfeld noted that the constitutional draft gives a nod to both democracy and Islamic principles.

Referring to comparisons to Vietnam made by some critics, Rumsfeld attacked arguments that any emerging government in Iraq is doomed to collapse under the insurgency.

"Their most prominent leaders are not Iraqis, they are not Ho Chi Minh's with a nationalist base, but in the case of Zarqawi a Jordanian murderer," Rumsfeld said.

"And their massacres of innocents have outraged most Iraqis, rather than attracting broad support. Indeed, polls indicate that the anger against the terrorists and the insurgents is growing."

Rumsfeld said that while the specter of civil war should draw attention and concern, "I haven't seen anything to indicate that the risk is greater today than it was yesterday or the day before."

4.

Breaking News

TWO EXTRA U.S. BATTALIONS TO IRAQ

Agence France-Presse
August 24, 2005

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16367071-23109,00.html

The Pentagon plans to deploy two additional battalions to Iraq amid rising insurgent attacks ahead of an anticipated referendum on a constitution, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.

Mr. Rumsfeld expressed confidence that public support for the war effort in Iraq will hold despite polls showing growing disenchantment in the United States.

"I think it'll have the support of the American people, and it will be sustained, and we will be successful," he said.

"And the alternative would be to turn that country and 25 million people over to terrorists and the kinds of people who have used chemicals on their own people and chemicals on their neighbors," he said. "That would be to turn to darkness."

An unfinished draft of the constitution was presented to the Iraqi parliament late yesterday, but deep differences remain between Sunnis and the Shiites and Kurds.

Mr. Rumsfeld discounted concerns that Sunni rejection of the charter could leave U.S. forces caught in the middle of a civil war.

"It hasn't happened yet. It is not happening now," he said.

"And, obviously, it is something that one has to be attentive to and be concerned about. But I haven't seen anything to indicate that the risk is greater today than it was yesterday or the day before," he said.

His comments came on a day in which two more Americans, a soldier and a contractor, died. They were killed in a suicide bombing in Baquba that also claimed the lives of five Iraqis.

Around 60 U.S. troops have been killed so far in August, making it one of the deadliest months of the war for the U.S. military since it invaded Iraq in March 2003.

The U.S. death toll now stands at 1868.

Mr. Rumsfeld acknowledged that insurgents have stepped up attacks in anticipation of a planned October 15 referendum on the constitution, attributing the higher casualties to more lethal and sophisticated insurgent bomb attacks.

"We very likely will be announcing a temporary increase in forces in Iraq in anticipation of the October 15th. So at some point, we'll be notifying people and taking that forward," he said.

Asked how many troops could be involved, he said between 1000 and 2000 soldiers.

Admiral Edmund Giambastiana, the new vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would be two battalions.

Senior military officials said the battalions would amount to extra troops, brought in on top of the scheduled rotation of forces in Iraq.

Military officials also are looking at ways to adjust the rotation of forces to beef up the U.S. troop presence on the ground for the elections from its current level of about 138,000 troops.

Some units already in Iraq could have their tours extended for a couple of months while units due to deploy to Iraq could be brought in earlier than scheduled.

Pentagon officials have said they expect the total number to rise to about the level they were at during Iraq's January 30 elections -- some 159,000 troops.

5.

BUSH APPROVAL AT ALL-TIME LOW IN U.S.

Angus Reid Global Scan
August 24, 2005

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/8637

George W. Bush is losing public backing in the United States, according to a poll by American Research Group. 36 per cent of respondents approve of their president’s performance, down six points since July.

The approval rating registered by Bush this month is the lowest of his tenure in an American Research Group survey. The American president had his best showing in January 2005 with 51 per cent.

Bush -- a Republican -- earned a second four-year term in November 2004. On Aug. 3 in Texas, Bush expressed satisfaction with job creation, saying, "Employment is up in 48 of the 50 states; unemployment is down to 5 per cent. That’s below the average rate of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong. More people own a home today than ever before in our nation’s history." 33 per cent of respondents approve of the way Bush is handling the economy, down five points in a month.

Yesterday in Utah, Bush addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, saying, "We have lost 1,864 members of our Armed Forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and 223 in Operation Enduring Freedom. . . . We will finish the task that they gave their lives for. We will honor their sacrifice by staying on the offensive against the terrorists, and building strong allies in Afghanistan and Iraq that will help us fight and win the war on terror."

POLLING DATA

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?

August 2005 -- 36% approve, 58% disapprove
July 2005 -- 42% approve, 52% disapprove
June 2005 -- 42% approve, 53% disapprove

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy?

August 2005 -- 32% approve, 62% disapprove
July 2005 -- 38% approve, 54% disapprove
June 2005 -- 37% approve, 59% disapprove

--Source: American Research Group

--Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,100 American adults, conducted from Aug. 18 to Aug. 21, 2005. Margin of error is 2.6 per cent.