from today's "Progress Report"

[nostamj]

88 Days and Counting

Ongoing violence in Iraq threatens the Bush Administration's deadline for transferring power to Iraqis in 88 days. Violence erupted in Iraq yesterday, as radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr unleashed his followers in several Iraqi cities. The resulting rioting and gun battles with coalition troops left at least 31 people dead, including eight U.S. soldiers, and more than 225 wounded. Meanwhile, in Basra, about 1,000 Sadr supporters have taken over the governor's residence. The clashes "were the deadliest yet between occupation forces and Shiites." At the other end of the spectrum in the Sunni triangle, this morning two Apache helicopters opened fire in Baghdad, and U.S. forces closed off the city of Fallujah to prepare for a "major operation against insurgents" after the brutal killing and mutilation of four American security contractors last week. This fatal weekend comes on the heels of the second deadliest month of the war – 49 Americans were killed in Iraq during the month of March.

PROVOKING BATTLE: The United States civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, initially dealt with Sadr's growing popularity by ignoring him. Now "he is attempting to provoke him into all-out battle." Last week, Bremer shut down a popular weekly Shiite newspaper despite warnings that "closing down a popular newspaper at such a crucial time would not curtail anti-occupation feelings but only inflame them." This weekend, Bremer sent coalition forces to surround Sadr's house and arrest his communications officer for a murder committed almost a year ago. Although the warrants were issued months ago, the coalition could offer no explanation about why they were not executed until Saturday. The arrest sparked "immediate demonstrations in Baghdad, which the Iraqi army responded to by opening fire and allegedly killing three people. It was these deaths that provoked yesterday's bloody demonstrations."

IRAQI POLICE ABANDON POSTS: According to the WP, near the city of Kufa, site of much of the fighting, many in the "American-trained police force joined the side of the Sadr forces." The NYT reports Iraqi police "abandoned their posts almost as soon as the militiamen appeared with their weapons, leaving the militiamen in unchallenged control — and punching a huge hole in American hopes that American-trained Iraqis can be relied on increasingly to take over from American troops in providing security in Iraq's major cities." Both Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the U.S. needed to deploy more troops to Iraq to help secure the country.

BAD TIMING: The Bush Administration continues insisting on its fast-approaching June 30 deadline for the transfer of power in Iraq, whether or not it's in the best interests of Iraq. This weekend, a prominent lawmaker expressed doubts about that date: "This is a time-intensive process, and time's not something we have a lot of," said chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) on ABC's This Week. "I think it's probably time to have that debate." Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) concurred, saying "We're going to end up with a civil war in Iraq if in fact we decide we can turn this over, including the bulk of the security, to the Iraqis between now and then." However, the White House rejects any suggestion that the timetable should be altered.

ONCE AGAIN, WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS WERE OVERBLOWN: The ongoing violence belies the optimistic estimates of the Administration before the war. Vice President Dick Cheney said on "Meet the Press" on 3/16/03 that "we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." On 3/3/03 Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said "I think there's every reason to think that huge numbers of the Iraqi population are going to welcome these people."

IRAQ TEAM "PACKED" WITH REPUBLICAN PARTY OPERATIVES: Despite the need for serious policy specialists to deal with the burgeoning problems in Iraq, a new AP reports the Bush Administration has packed its Iraq team with former Republican Party operatives. Fully "one-third of the U.S. civilian workers in the press office have GOP ties." More than half a dozen Coalition officials either worked on Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or are related to Bush campaign workers. The cronyism on the U.S. team "stands in deep contrast to the British team that works alongside it, almost all of whom are civil or foreign service employees, not political appointees."

WMD DOUBTS: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell voiced doubts about the Administration's premise for war in Iraq in the first place, saying the "description in his U.N. presentation of mobile biological weapons laboratories appears to have been based on faulty sources." Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) said on CNN's "Late Edition" Sunday that "Saddam Hussein's alleged mobile germ factories and labs probably 'did not exist,' and he sharply criticized prewar U.S. intelligence about Iraq's suspected weapons." Powell's and Roberts' efforts to deflect blame from the White House, however, is contradicted by the facts: the Bush Administration was repeatedly warned that its WMD case for war was weak, with Powell's U.N. assertions about biological weapons coming at the very same time the CIA was completing a report which specifically noted there was no "direct evidence" that Iraq had succeeded in reconstituting its biological weapons.

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mods, this is still only a portion of the 'report' but it is sent with encouragement to send it on...