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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Iraq: Green Zone Blowback: Index Timeline

by Sarah Meyer
Index Research

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UPDATED 6 December 2009

Global Security Green Zone Map and Article

Buddhist philosophy called it Kharma . Chalmers Johnson¹ wrote a book, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. The term, ‘Blowback,’ was “originally coined by the CIA to describe the unintended consequences of American policies.”

The Green Zone in Iraq is a perfect example of this ‘blowback.’ While the policies were ‘unintended’, they were certainly foreseeable.

Following is an Index Timeline of the Green Zone disaster.

US Embassy site.

Bomb hits entrance to Green Zone, 20 dead (18.01.04. Back to Iraq)

From
US Bases in Iraq: Part I: Baghdad (17.04.06. Sarah Meyer, Index Research):

Parsons was contracted to build “T Walls” in 11.04. In the summer of 2005, a Kuwaiti firm was ‘awarded’ the $592m contract for the new US embassy in Baghdad, to be completed by 2007. Built to withstand attack, this Ozymandius on the Tigris, composed of a cluster of 21 buildings, will have “a gym, swimming pool, barber and beauty shops, a food court and a commissary. In addition to the main embassy buildings, there will be a large-scale US Marine barracks, a school, locker rooms, a warehouse, a vehicle maintenance garage, and six apartment buildings with a total of 619 one-bedroom units. Water, electricity and sewage treatment plants will all be independent from Baghdad's city utilities. The total site will be two-thirds the area of the National Mall in Washington, DC.” It will be the largest US embassy in the world. For that reason, I have included this US Embassy in Baghdad amongst US Bases in Iraq.

For an honest view of the Green Zone and military facilities around Baghdad airport, read the Daily Iraqi Cheese Grader. This blog has not yet been removed by the Pentagon ‘democracy and freedom’ censors .

The Progression of Resistance

You'd have to look hard .
24.06.06. World Prout Assembly

Bush 'palace' shielded from Iraqi storm.
26.08.06. P. McGeough, The Age. … as the concrete hulks of a huge 21-building complex rise from the ashes of Saddam's Baghdad, Washington is sending a clear message to Iraqis: "We're here to stay."

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone
29.09.06. Amy Goodman, Democracy Now. .. a federal inspector testified before Congress on Thursday on how private contractors have failed in their efforts to rebuild Iraq. The inspector, Stuart Bowen, criticized three companies in particular: Parsons, Bechtel and the Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Bowen said that of the fourteen major projects built by Parsons in Iraq, 13 of them were substandard with construction deficiencies and other serious problems.

Behind Baghdad Walls, Rosy Plans in the Green Zone
13.10.06. M. Kakutani, NY Times. “Iraqis needed help — good advice and ample resources — from a support corps of well-meaning foreigners, not a full-scale occupation with imperial Americans cloistered in a palace of the tyrant, eating bacon and drinking beer, surrounded by Gurkhas and blast walls.”

Photo Reuters

At least 32 killed in Iraq violence
15.10.04. ABC. At least 32 people were killed in attacks in Iraq on Thursday, including bombings inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone said to have been claimed by the suspected Al Qaeda chief in the country, Musab al-Zarqawi. .. The attacks in the Green Zone killed at least seven people, including two American civilians, and wounded at least eight, a US officer said.

Iraq will wait to disarm militias
16.10.06. R. Jervis, USA today. ‘The prime minister … shared his views during a rare 50-minute interview Friday in his expansive, marble-and-gold-trimmed residence, a former palace of deposed leader Saddam Hussein located inside the tightly guarded Green Zone.’

A U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest Embassy
17.10.06. D. Phinney, Corpwatch. … ‘the companies building the embassies were always fair and professional, he says. The Kuwait-based company building the $592-million Baghdad project is the exception. Brutal and inhumane, he says “I’ve never seen a project more fucked up. Every US labor law was broken.” In the resignation letter last June, Owen told First Kuwaiti and US State Department officials that his managers beat their construction workers, demonstrated little regard for worker safety, and routinely breached security.’

Mortars strike U.S. office in Iraq - story disappears
12.11.06. Daily Kos.

The New US Embassy Compound: A Shrub Grows in War Torn Baghdad
14.11.06. S. Peacock, Global Research.ca. ‘The U.S. State Dept. may designate a one-million-dollar landscaping "allowance" for the New Embassy Compound (NEC) under construction in the heart of war-torn Baghdad, Iraq -- and that's just for the first year, according to a draft planning document located by The Peacock Report. … Despite this need for an untold number of groundskeepers and construction professionals, many of whom will be housed in a still-to-be-constructed $12 million Operations & Maintenance "Man Camp," Iraqis need not apply.’

Bury my heart in the Green Zone
28.11.06. P. Escobar, Asia Times / ICH. ‘The fall of the Green Zone. Everyone is guilty in the ongoing Iraq tragedy. The US-trained new Iraqi army is infiltrated by militias, by death squads and even by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The SCIRI, Da'wa and the Kurds are only worried about their own interests, not the interests of Iraq as a nation. And the US - always hiding under the dubious mantra of "Iraqi democracy" - totally evades its responsibility in provoking the appalling chaos in the first place.’

Latin American mercenaries guarding Baghdad’s Green Zone
28.12.06. C. Uco. WSWS.

US twists civilian arms to fill Fortress Baghdad
07.01.07. G. Dinmore, Financial Times.

Iraq Through the Lens of Soldiers' Memoirs
23.01.07. S. Soldz, Counterpunch. “The Green Zone, a.k.a. the "International Zone," the "Ultimate Gated Community," or more appropriately, the "United States of Iraq," is the place where the various would-be rulers of Iraq have congregated since the March-April 2003 invasion. The colonial administration, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), set up its headquarters here. After the June 2004 handover of "sovereignty" but little power to an Iraqi Interim Government with its Prime Minister forced upon United Nations officials nominally in charge by the United States, this government made its home in the Green Zone. The current "elected," but largely powerless, Shia-dominated government also "rules" from this zone.”

The Green-Zoning of America
05.02.07. P. Krugman, NY Times / Truth Out. One of the best of the many recent books about the Iraq debacle is Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City." The book tells a tale of hopes squandered in the name of politicization and privatization: key jobs in Baghdad's Green Zone were assigned on the basis of loyalty rather than know-how, while key functions were outsourced to private contractors.

Top secret army cell breaks terrorists
05.02.07. Sean Rayment, Sunday Telegraph. ‘Deep inside the heart of the "Green Zone", the heavily fortified administrative compound in Baghdad, lies one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the war in Iraq. It is a cell from a small and anonymous British Army unit that goes by the deliberately meaningless name of the Joint Support Group (JSG), and it has proved to be one of the Coalition's most effective and deadly weapons in the fight against terror.’

Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty

Mission Imperial
19.02.07. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, G2, Guardian, Part I of III. ... (Great reading of vulgar vanities ...) 'None of the succulent tomatoes or crisp cucumbers grown in Iraq made it into the salad bar. US government regulations dictated that everything, even the water in which hot dogs were boiled, be shipped in from approved suppliers in other nations. Milk and bread were trucked in from Kuwait, as were tinned peas and carrots. The breakfast cereal was flown in from the US. When the Americans arrived, the engineers assigned to transform Saddam's palace into the seat of the American occupation chose a marble-floored conference room the size of a gymnasium to serve as the mess hall. Halliburton, the defence contractor hired to run the palace, brought in dozens of tables, hundreds of stacking chairs and a score of glass-covered buffets. Seven days a week, the Americans ate under Saddam's crystal chandeliers. .. A mural of the World Trade Centre adorned one of the entrances. The twin towers were framed within the outstretched wings of a bald eagle. Each branch of the US military - the army, air force, marines and navy - had its seal on a different corner of the mural. In the middle were the logos of the New York City police and fire departments, and on top of the towers were the words, "Thank God for the coalition forces & freedom fighters at home and abroad." At another of the three entrances was a bulletin board with posted notices, including those that (final para) read "The atmosphere was thick with sexual tension. At the bar, there were usually 10 men to every woman. With tours of duty that sometimes stretched to six months without a home leave, some with wedding rings began to refer to themselves as "operationally single."

How Much Embassy Is Too Much?
02.03.07. E. Williamson, Washington Post/legitgov. "I defy anyone to tell me how you can use that many people. It is nuts . . . it's insane and it's counterproductive . . . and it won't work," says the Republican former secretary of state and member of the Iraq Study Group. "I've been around the State Department long enough to know you can't run an outfit like that." The nerve center of Iraq reconstruction efforts, housed in an ornate former Saddam Hussein palace with soaring ceilings and its own espresso bar, the embassy in Baghdad is one of the largest foreign missions ever operated by the State Department. Its complexity and expense, some say, hampers reconstruction efforts and drains cash from diplomatic efforts worldwide.

US embassies in Europe are shopping advisers for Maliki
06.03.07. Roads to Iraq / uruknet/daily war news. It was a country full with scientists and researchers, now the "Green Zone" government can’t find a single person to work as an advisers for Maliki. ... The US department of State mobilized its embassies in European capitals to search advisers who are ready to work inside the "Green Zone".

Rocket hits Baghdad Green Zone, shakes U.S. embassy
26.03.07. Reuters / uruknet. "no one hurt." A 28.03 report says, however, that 2 americans - one soldier and one contractor were killed and 5 wounded.

Strikes on Baghdad's Green Zone on the Rise: On 6 of Past 7 Days, Rockets or Shells Have Hit Sector That Includes U.S. Embassy
29.03.07. K. Brulliard / R. Wright, Washington Post.

Iraq Parliament Bomber Kills 8, Including Lawmakers (Update1)
12.04.07. Bloomberg. A suicide bomber killed eight people in Iraq's Parliament building, including at least two lawmakers, after penetrating the security of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Two more bombs have since been found in a nearby building, Sky News reported. The bomber exploded a device in a cafeteria where members of the 275-member Council of Representatives were eating lunch, state television said. One of the lawmakers killed was Mohammed Awad of the Sunni Muslim National Dialogue Front, Al Jazeera reported. In addition to the eight deaths, 23 people were hurt, U.S. Major General William Caldwell said in a statement, without giving details. The statement was read over the phone by a spokeswoman. . The Green Zone is protected by U.S. forces and private contractors. The area is surrounded by high concrete blast walls and all entry points are staffed by security guards.

VIDEO Channel 4.

4 Killed in Green Zone Rocket Attack
03.05.07. THOMAS WAGNER, AP / URUKNET. A rocket attack on Iraq's heavily fortified Green Zone killed four Filipino contractors working for the U.S. government, the American embassy said Thursday. It was the third straight day that extremists used rockets or mortars to hit the area where Iraq's parliament meets. The embassy said Wednesday's attack left it ``with a profound sense of sadness and regret'' over the loss of Filipinos who ``were integral members of our embassy community.''...

Al-Akhbar: Failure of the Surge is leading to a new level of confrontation in the Green Zone
12.05.07. ARABLINKS / uruknet.

Sadrist lawmakers, U.S. soldiers in Green Zone standoff
13.05.07. IHT. Parliament is expected this week to debate a draft legislation sponsored by the 30 Sadrist lawmakers for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces in Iraq and a freeze on their existing levels. The Sadrists say they have secured the support of 144 lawmakers, but the draft was not expected to win the support of so many if it ever comes to a vote.

U.S. Embassy employees fearful over Green Zone attacks
14.05.07. McClatchy.

Attacks on Baghdad Green Zone kill 2
16.05.07. AP / Philly.com. Ten mortar rounds slammed into the U.S.-controlled Green Zone on Wednesday, killing at least two Iraqis and wounding 10 people, officials said.

World's Biggest U.S. Embassy May Not Be Quite Big Enough
16.05.07. Washington Post.

Baghdad's Green Zone attacked as Blair visits Iraq
19.05.07. Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose premiership has been dominated by his unpopular decision to join the Iraq war, arrived in Baghdad on a farewell visit on Saturday and three mortar shells or rocket slammed into the compound where he met with Iraq's leaders. The attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone wounded one person, said US Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor. One round hit the British Embassy compound, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Mortar shell hits Iraq parly
21.05.07. news24. A mortar shell struck the roof of Iraq's parliament inside Baghdad's heavily protected (?) Green Zone on Monday, shaking the building but causing no casualties.

Mortar barrage hits Green Zone (23.05.07. Times Leader) At least two killed in second day of attacks on American nerve center.

The intensity of opposition to foreign troops is not likely to decrease, no matter how many surges Bush/Cheney impose upon this suffering country. The resistance is likely to increase as the May date for the Paul Bremer Iraq Oil Plan is presented to the Iraqi Congress.

Furthermore, the Guardian headline (23.05.07), Bush may turn to UN in search for Iraq solution is not only disingenuous but downright dangerous for us all. The United States would then not only have power over its own military but that of NATO and the UN as well. I.E. WORLD MILITARY MIGHT. Clever way keep wars on an infinite boil whilst ensuring corporate profit.

Footnote :

[1] Further articles by Chalmers Johnson can be seen at Tom Dispatch

UPDATES

FM: Green Zone Most Dangerous Place in Iraq
23.05.07. Iraq Slogger. Iraqi FM Boasts of Living in Red Zone, Claims Green Zone More Dangerous. 'In a wide-ranging interview on Australia's ABC TV network Monday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari made a striking claim: "The Green Zone is the most dangerous place in Iraq these days. So outside the Green Zone is much safer."

Taste of Home Runs Low in Iraq
24.05.07. K. DeYoung, Washington Post. Complications Hold Up Embassy Food Convoys. ‘Life in the Green Zone -- a Foreign Service hardship post -- has long been mitigated by the culinary comforts of home. Virtually every bite and sip consumed there is imported from the United States, entering Iraq via Kuwait in huge truck convoys that bring fresh and processed food, including a full range of Baskin-Robbins ice cream flavors, every seven to 10 days. an internal embassy e-mail announced a "Theater-Wide Delay in Food Deliveries." … "We have 1,000 Americans at the embassy in Baghdad," Leahy told Rice at a hearing. "You add the contractors and the local staff, it comes to 4,000 . . . a deviation from the plan that we'd agreed to." According to Senate staffers, operating costs now total $1.2 billon a year. … The embassy food is supplied under a U.S. government contract with Houston-based KBR, which separately provides similar services to the military. … Col. Steven A. Boylan, spokesman for Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, cited bad weather (sic) in Kuwait and along the routes north.

For further Green Zone Attack Statistics, see GDAEman (updated 25.05.07).

PHOTOS: The $592 Million U.S. Embassy In Iraq
30.05.07. Think Progress/uruknet

US scrambles to remove plans for new Baghdad embassy from Internet
31.05.07. Raw Story. Our desire would be that this not be in the public domain," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said after officials called the firm of Berger Devine Yaeger within minutes of learning from a reporter that the embassy plans had been posted on its website.

JUNE 2007

The New US Embassy in Baghdad
02.06.07. anti-war.com The pictures below were released by the architect on the construction of a massive new US embassy in war-torn Baghdad. The photos have been pulled from the original site but are available here.

Seven US soldiers killed, Baghdad attack thwarted
04.06.07. Zaman. US Apache helicopters thwarted a rocket attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, the US military said on Sunday, but the number of US casualties rose with seven more soldiers reported killed.

U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Not Yet Finished But Ready to Grow
Monday, June 04, 2007. Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Fox News. It’s as big as Vatican City and makes the foreign embassies dotting the tree-lined streets of Washington, D.C., look like carriage houses, but the barely-finished U.S. embassy in Baghdad is already primed for expansion.

Blood, Sweat and Tears at New US Embassy
09.06.07. David Phinney, anti-war.com. The US Justice Department is actively investigating allegations of forced labor and other abuses by the Kuwaiti contractor now rushing to complete the sprawling 592-million-dollar US embassy project in Baghdad, numerous sources have revealed.

Several mortar bombs land in Iraq's Green Zone
14.06.07. Reuters.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone by R. Chanrasekaran.
This book has "swept to victory in the £30,000 Samuel Johnson non-fiction prize" (18.06.07, Guardian).

Mortar shells hit Green Zone
19.06.07. presstv.ir.

Mortar bombs strike Green Zone in Baghdad
21.06.07. Reuters.

Mortar barrage hits Green Zone, 21 corpses found in Baghdad
27.06.07. indian muslims info.

KBR awarded Logistics Civil Augmentation {how is that for unintelligible language?} LOGCAP IV Contract
27.06.07. Business wire.

JULY 2007

Even Green Zone has it own fuel crisis
03.07.07. Azzaman. There are filling stations in the Green Zone, where the U.S. and Iraqi government have their offices, but only U.S. officials, administrators and soldiers have the right to use them. Senior Iraqi officials can fill their tanks there but the stations are off bounds to low-ranking Iraqi civil servants.

Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq
05.07.07. Washington Post. A toughly worded cable sent from the embassy to State Department headquarters on May 29 highlights a cascade of building and safety blunders in a new facility to house the security guards protecting the embassy. The guards' base, which remains unopened today, is just a small part of a $592 million project to build the largest U.S. embassy in the world.

US Diplomats Fearful in New Iraqi Embassy
05.07.07. Wash. Post/Truthout. US diplomats in Iraq have become increasingly fearful over their personal safety after recent mortar attacks inside the Green Zone. A large number of mistakes, delays and building and safety blunders in the $592 million US Embassy construction project in Baghdad may leave them vulnerable in the coming months, The New York Times reports.

Five explosions rock Baghdad’s Green Zone
07.07.07. Daily Times.

Shelling in Green Zone kills 3
11.07.07. LA Times

New U.S. Embassy rises in Iraq
24.07.07. LA Times. Conspicuously huge and self-contained but deemed inadequate for a disaster scenario, the compound is already taking fire.

Green Zone Is Hit By Barrage of Shells
11.07.07. Washington Post. American Killed; Attacks Becoming Frequent, Accurate. More than two dozen mortar shells pounded the Green Zone on Tuesday, killing three people, including a U.S. military member, and injuring 18, among them five Americans, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Embassy in Iraq
13.07.07. CRS Report (updated)

Baghdad Green Zone shelled
13.07.07. Middle East On Line. Barrage of mortars kill two Iraqi soldiers in second attack on fortified zone this week.
BAGHDAD - Militants slammed a barrage of mortars into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Friday and killed at least two Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi security officials said.

State orders flak jackets in Baghdad's Green Zone
14.07.07. Mike Drummond, McClatchy Newspapers

No Evidence of Iran’s role in violence and instability in Iraq – confirms British Foreign Minister
19.07.07. Mehrnaz Shahabi, ICH. David Milliband, British foreign secretary, confirmed in an interview (1) with the Financial times, 8th July, that there is no evidence of Iranian complicity in instability in Iraq or attacks on British troops

Half Billion Dollar U.S. Embassy in Baghdad 'Not Big Enough'?
24.07.07. Sharon Weinbe, wired.com/anti-war.com.

AUGUST 2007

Green Zone, Red Zone
01.08.07. T. Englehardt / M. Swartz, The Nation. ... while Pollack and O'Hanlon met with the "known knowns" in the equivalent of Green Zone Iraq, a brave French reporter, Anne Nivat, spent two weeks living as an Iraqi in a Shiite neighborhood in "Red Zone" Baghdad.'

U.S. Pays Millions In Cost Overruns For Security in Iraq.
12.08.07. S. Fainaru, Washington Post. The U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that show how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed./ The two companies, Aegis Defence Services and Erinys Iraq, signed their original Defense Department contracts in May 2004. By July of this year, the contracts supported a private force that had grown to about 2,000 employees serving the Corps of Engineers. The force is about the size of three military battalions. ... The size of this force and its cost have never been documented. The Pentagon has said that about 20,000 security contractors operate in Iraq, although some estimates are considerably higher. ... Aegis and Erinys work side-by-side in Baghdad's Green Zone.

Five policemen killed in Iraq - Green Zone shelled.
13.08.07. Monstersandcritics.com.

Club Med Baghdad .
17.08.07. Ilya Shapiro, weekly standard. Life in the Green Zone.

Green Zone Blinders.
18.08.07. Jonathan Finer, Washington Post. A dizzying number of dignitaries have passed through Baghdad for high-level briefings. The Hill newspaper reported this month that 76 U.S. senators have traveled to Iraq during the war, 38 in the past 12 months. Most never left the Green Zone or other well-protected enclaves. Few, if any, changed the views they held before arriving.

Roadside bomb kills two while mortar barrage hits Green Zone in Baghdad.
21.08.07. english.people.com. Earlier in the day, several mortar rounds landed on the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies, including the U.S. embassy, the source added.
It was not known whether there was any casualty or where exactly the rounds landed, he said.

Crisis in the Green Zone.
22.08.07. Jonathan Steele, Guardian. Nuri al-Maliki's outburst against US criticism is bad news for George Bush, whose political project for Iraq now looks more fragile than ever.

Explosion hits Baghdad Green Zone.
23.08.07. AFP – presstv.ir. Explosion occurred around 0430 GMT.

Lawmakers Describe 'Being Slimed in the Green Zone'.
31.08.07. J. Weisman, Washington Post. ‘In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history." … "Spin City," Moran grumbled. "The Iraqis and the Americans were all singing from the same song sheet, and it was deliberately manipulated."

SEPTEMBER 2007

There is little electricity, foul water, underequipped hospitals, few schools, professors, doctors and reporters are being murdered - but the Americans have the largest embassy in the world with empty offices, as no one wants to work there.

Welcome to the new US embassy.
01.10.08. timesonline. A towering wall renders the huge new embassy almost invisible from ground level. For security reasons the State Department has refused all requests for media tours – promising instead to release pictures of the interior at some later date. The only way to view it is from the roof of the Babylon hotel, across the river.

REPORT: Petraeus Spent At Least 17 Days In August Flacking For Bush’s Escalation.
09.07. |Thinkprogress.org. 'The White House has used Petraeus as a PR flack over and over again to sustain its failing Iraq strategy. Last month, Petraeus kicked his political activities into overdrive. He hosted over 38 congressional members inside the Green Zone, and he gave numerous radio, print and TV interviews.'

Letter: CHANGES NEEDED IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN CONFLICTS.
14.09.07. lahontanvalleynews. Even the Green Zone is no longer a safe haven. There are more than 35 terrorist attacks EVERY DAY.

U.S. bans diplomatic ground movements in Iraq outside protected Green Zone.
17.09.07. IHT. The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone amid mounting public outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the U.S. Embassy’s security porvider Blackwater USA.

U.S. Bans Overland Travel by Diplomats in Iraq.
18.09.07. AP / ICH. The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials throughout Iraq, except in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. … The notice did not say when the suspension would expire.

Baghdad residents protest US-erected dividing wall.
18.09.07. wsws. Hundreds of Shiite and Sunni residents staged a protest on September 12 against a wall being constructed by US troops between their adjoining neighborhoods in northwest Baghdad. Construction on the two-kilometer long wall, part of a deliberate US effort to divide Iraq’s population along religious lines, began last week without the consultation of local residents and continues despite their opposition. … The first wall, built in April around a western Baghdad Sunni neighborhood, despite widespread opposition and an order from Barriers are common in the city, particularly around the Green Zone and in marketplace areas, and the military had already blocked off roads and created some “gated communities” within Baghdad before the troop build-up. In late 2006, US forces closed off nearly all roads leading to two Sunni neighborhoods in western Baghdad. Residents there said that violence decreased initially after the roadblocks were erected, but by the spring it had increased again.
.
Embassy Builder Linked to Kickbacks.
20.09.07. AP/Guardian. The Kuwaiti company building the U.S. embassy in Baghdad has been accused of agreeing to pay $200,000 in kickbacks in return for two unrelated Army contracts in Iraq. The scheme, outlined in a now-sealed court document obtained by The Associated Press, allegedly involved First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting and a manager for Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. or KBR , a firm hired to handle logistics for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The document summarizes grand jury testimony from the former KBR manager, Anthony J. Martin, who pleaded guilty in July to taking kickbacks in 2003.

The US Embassy’s Abu Ghraib.
26.09.07. R. Engel, NBC. Diplomats are supposed to make friends.
They are supposed to use their, well, diplomatic skills to resolve conflicts, advance foreign policy and improve relations with foreign cultures. It's hard to do that when you're surrounded by tattooed, gun-waving, badge-wearing guards – eyeless behind sun glasses – accused of wantonly killing Iraqis who get too close. Of course, the security firm that protects embassy staff here, Blackwater, maintains it agents have consistently acted to protect its clients in what is an undeniably dangerous environment.

VIDEO
Video
The Bases are Loaded Chalmers Johnson and Dahr Jamail discuss / illustrate key US bases in Iraq.

OCTOBER 2007

Opening of US Embassy in Iraq Delayed
05.10.07. AP. The opening of a mammoth, $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which had been planned for last month, has now been delayed well into next year, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The Vatican-sized compound, which will be the world's largest diplomatic mission, has been beset by construction and logistical problems.

Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays
07.10.07. G. Kessler, Washington Post, Truthout. Planning, workmanship cited as problems.

Polish embassy in Baghdad moves to green zone
09.10.07. polskieradio. On Monday, one Iraqi passer-by was killed and five injured in four separate explosions in the vicinity of the Polish embassy. Last Wednesday, a Polish officer of the Government Protection Office was killed and the Polish ambassador to Iraq was seriously injured in an attack on the Polish convoy in Baghdad.

US Builds Bunker of an Embassy in Iraq
15.10.07. Der Spiegel / uruknet. The new American embassy currently rising from the dust of the Green Zone in Baghdad will break all records. It covers an area of 400,000 square meters, six times that of the United Nations complex in New York and 10 times that of the new US embassy in Beijing. It's said to be the largest embassy the US has ever built; at a cost of $592 million (€416 million), it's certainly the most expensive. But now the State Department in Washington is having to face accusati! ons of mismanagement and shoddy building practices. Due to last-minute repairs that will add an estimated $150 million to the building's price tag, the embassy, which was scheduled to open in September 2007, won't open its doors until the beginning of next year. So far, criticism has been restrained. But behind closed doors, Democrats and senior Iraqi politicians are quietly wondering whether the giant project might turn into a giant disaster...

Criminal Probe Into US Embassy in Iraq Construction
18.10.07. Warren P. Strobel, Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy / Truthout. "A mortar shell smashed into the hulking new US Embassy under construction in Baghdad last May, damaging a wall and causing minor injuries to people inside the building. It also exposed enormous problems in the management of what's become a $592 million government construction project. .. The State Department contractor in charge of the project, James L. Golden, attempted to alter the scene of the blast, according to government officials familiar with the incident. The State Department inspector general prevented Department officials from investigating the incident, according to interviews and documents.

State Department Enforces Postings to Iraq
27.10.07. Sue Pleming, Reuters / Truthout. Facing staff shortages in Iraq, the U.S. State Department announced on Friday that diplomats would have no choice but to accept one-year postings in the hostile environment or face losing their jobs. In what is likely to be an unpopular move with staff, State Department human resources director Harry Thomas said about 250 "prime candidates" for vacant Iraqi posts would be notified on Monday of the decision.

Diplomats Upset Over Forced Postings to Iraq
31.10.07. M. Lee, AP. Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department's decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence." In a contentious hour-long "town hall meeting" called to explain the step, these workers peppered the official who signed the order with often hostile complaints about the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam. Announced last week, it will require some diplomats - under threat of dismissal - to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams in outlying provinces.

NOVEMBER 2007

The Mega-Bunker of Baghdad
11.07. William Langewiesche, Vanity Fair. Indeed, the U.S government itself is a prisoner, and all the more tightly held because it engineered the prison where it resides. The Green Zone was built by the inmates themselves. The new embassy results from their desire to get their confinement just right.

Why diplomats won't go to Iraq
02.11.07. Time. ... The most demoralizing aspect of the violence may not be the physical risk, but rather the isolation and sense of futility the violence engenders. Most diplomats leave the Green Zone only rarely, and never simply to socialize with ordinary Iraqis or explore the city. Traveling around Baghdad for the fun of it always carried some risk for Americans, but it was at least possible in 2003 and into 2004. Now the idea is outlandish. State Department employees travel under heavy guard, which only serves to further isolate them from the populace. Its massive new embassy complex — set to open in a few months — comes equipped with hundreds of bomb-resistant apartments for its staff, a ventilation system designed to minimize the impact of a chemical weapons attack, and other safeguards more appropriate for a high-tech fortress than a center of diplomacy. But Americans don't join the Foreign Service to hunker down in a bomb-proof bunker, cut off not only from their own families but also from the people and the culture of their host country.

Most discouraging of all, the danger and discomfort do not seem to be in service of a successful strategy. Croddy, the veteran diplomat, implied that the shortage of volunteers was a function of diplomats not believing in the American mission in Iraq. It's a fair point. Violence has dropped in recent months, but there has been little substantive progress on key issues from disarming Shi'ite militias to deciding how to distribute the nation's oil revenue. As the Bush Administration ratchets up its rhetoric against Iran it is American diplomats who must deal personally with Shi'ite politicians, who have closer ties to Tehran than to Washington.

Tourist's Guide to Baghdad's Green Zone
05.11.07. Noah Shachtman, wired. Baghdad's Green Zone isn't just the epicenter of America's forces in Iraq -- it's also a lovely place to spend a vacation. That's the word, at least, from this "Visitors Guide," which details 20 "local landmarks" throughout this five-and-a-half square mile strip of Iraq's capital. Here's a sample: Little Venice. [only americans could devise something so bizarre]

APR - The Arrest of Red Crescent Director
10.11.07. Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)/uruknet. The American occupation forces arrested Amer Muhammad Hussein the director of Red Crescent office and his brother from the house in Al Azra village in Tarimiya.
The crime occurred when the occupation forces surrounded the house and broke the furniture tampering with the contents of the house. These forces arrested the citizens and brought them to an unknown destination. This crime is added to the series of crimes carried out by these forces against those areas that are rejecting the occupation and his aides.

Red Crescent Rebukes Green Zone Government
13.11.07. Nur Hussein Ghazali, Gorilla’s Guides/uruknet. The Iraki Red Crescent has issued a statement expressing regret that inaccurate statements are being made about Iraki Internally Displaced Persons. In a statement passed to the the independent Iraki newsagency Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq) the Iraqi Red Crescent, said on Monday, that it "deeply regretted" the statements circulated recently by officials about the Displaced in Iraq and said they were not related realities of the situation faced by the displaced. ... The [Red Crescent] statement continued that "such statements [editor’s note: The statement by the green zone government] do not serve the Iraki people and are harmful to displaced persons and the forcibly displaced."

Inquiry begins into soaring cost of US embassy in Iraq
16.11.07. Ewen MacAskill, Guardian

Mortars hit Baghdad Green Zone
22.11.07. Reuters. police said insurgents fired 10 mortar bombs at Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone just before dusk,

Iraqi lawmakers protest ‘humiliating’ treatment by U.S.
Think Progress. Good comments, too.

DECEMBER 2007

State Department Retains Manager of Troubled Embassy Project
06.12.07. McClatchy /truthout. "A State Department project manager banished from Iraq by the US ambassador and under scrutiny by the Justice Department continues to oversee the construction of the much-delayed new American embassy in Baghdad from nearby Kuwait, State Department officials disclosed Thursday."

Embattled State Department Inspector General Resigns
07.12.07. Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers/truthout. Howard Krongard, under fire for allegedly impeding probes into problems with construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and with security firm Blackwater Worldwide, submitted his resignation Friday. ... In a reference to the upheaval in the inspector general's office in recent months, he told his staff: "I also ask you, frankly, to make an effort to reduce the static that interferes with the harmony [sic] we would like to achieve."

U.S. Gov't., Halliburton Covered Up Gang Rape, Woman Says
10.12.07. shortnews. A Houston woman who worked for the Halliburton subsidiary KBR in Iraq said she was gang raped by KBR employees in Baghdad's Green Zone, imprisoned afterward, and that now the government and KBR are covering up the incident. She said she was put into a shipping container with a bed but no food or water for at least 24 hours after the incident and told that she would be out of a job if she left Iraq to seek medical treatment. "It felt like prison," said Jamie Jones, 22. The U.S. State Department had no comment, and it does not appear that the government is investigating, despite the fact that it took a congressman's action to free Jones. Legal experts say that a loophole leaves contractors above the law in Iraq.

Follow the Leader: Halliburton Rape Case Reflects Bush Ethos
11.12.07. Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque / uruknet. ...The Bush Regime would not want to prosecute them good old Halliburton boys in any case; after all, they were only doing to this young woman what their paymasters on the Potomac have been doing to the entire country of Iraq year after year after year after year. Like the infamous guards at Abu Ghraib, like the American soldiers who raped, murdered and burned 15-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza, or the Bush-backed, American-armed Iraqi se! curity forces who abducted and raped young Sabrine Al-Janabi, the Halliburton attackers were carrying out on a smaller scale the very essence, ethos and aim of George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, and all of their enablers in both parties, in the press, and throughout the American Establishment: the violent imposition of their barbaric desires....

Rape Victim Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee About Halliburton/KBR [VIDEO]
20.12.07. Cliff Schecter, Alternet. 'This is so disgusting, so vile....Not just the incident, but response to it.'

JANUARY 2008

Six soldiers in booze disgrace
02.01.08. mirror. An Army captain and five colleagues may be kicked out of the Forces after breaking strict booze rules in Iraq over Christmas. .. The six, based at Catterick, North Yorks, were caught after complaints of raucous noise from a Portakabin on December 22.

"A Darker Shade Of Green Zone
05.01.07. Washington Post. In Baghdad, Low Expectations Have Supplanted High Ideals

American Embassy Pool House

White House blocks inquiry into construction of $736m embassy in Iraq
29.02.08 Guardian. Henry Waxman, who is chairman of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives, asked US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice today to explain why her department certified the embassy as "substantially completed" in December despite inspections that reveal continued deficiencies in the facility's water, fire alarm and kitchen systems.

At new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, even kitchens are fire hazards
29.02.08. Mc Clatchy. None of the 26 buildings in the new $740 million U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad is ready to be occupied. Fire alarms intended to safeguard more than 1,000 U.S. government employees aren't working. Kitchens in some of the buildings are fire hazards.

MARCH 2008

Baghdad's Green Zone hit by barrage of blasts
23.03.08. yahoo. Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone was hit by a sustained barrage of rocket or mortar bomb fire early on Sunday and emergency sirens could be heard in the Iraqi capital's government and diplomatic compound. It was not immediately clear where the missiles landed or if there were any casualties after an apparent attack lasting about 15 minutes, Reuters witnesses said.

Manufacturing Consent For War With Iran

West seeks pretexts to use against Iran-Ahmadinejad
02.03.08. Reuters / wiredispatch. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in remarks published on Sunday that some Western countries were using Iran's nuclear activity as a pretext to pressure his country.

Iran 'behind Green Zone attack'
24.04.08. BBC. The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. ... The barrage hit the Green Zone on Sunday morning. Some rockets missed their targets killing 15 Iraqi civilians.

Red Rags to Bull Cheney
EXTRA: Iraqis will foil US plans in region, says Ahmadinejad
02.03.08. dpa / wiredispatch. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday in Baghdad that the Iraqi people would eventually foil the United States political plans in the Persian Gulf region.

Iran leader's Iraq visit eclipses US, Arab ties
02.03.08. Reuters / wiredispatch. Bush has visited Iraq several times, his administration keen to reduce Iranian influence in the world's top oil-exporting region.

Iran starts supplying electricity to Basra
24.03.08. payvand.com. Electricity transfer from Iran's Abadan to Basra to compensate for the province's energy shortage has just begun, the Iraqi official told the war-torn country's state-run newspaper al-Sabah.

To inform yourselves about US intentions, read this book review: A Book Americans Must Read Before Time Runs Out. 25.03.08. Michael Scheuer, anti-war.com. Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Gallup Press, 2008

Green Zone shelling mirrors militia ire
24.03.08. H, HENDAWI and Q. ABDUL-ZAHRA, AP. Rocket attacks on the U.S.-protected Green Zone may carry a message with implications across Iraq: rising anger within the Mahdi Army militia.

US Embassy employee dies of wounds
25.03.08. wiredispatch. Paul Converse, 56, was hit when rockets fired by suspected Shiite militia fighters rained down on the U.S.-protected area in central Baghdad Sunday.

Baghdad Green Zone hit by rockets
25.03.08. yahoo. At least four Katyusha rockets struck the Green Zone, an Iraqi security official said. The latest assault comes just two days after insurgents fired four waves of rockets and mortars into the area. .. Two rockets hit the fence of the Ibn Sinha hospital, another fell near a building that houses Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security company and the fourth fell near the office of Blackwater USA, the private security company employed to protect US embassy personnel, a witness told AFP.

First mortar-fire casualty in the Green Zone
26.03.08. Arablinks / uruknet. Five intermittent mortar rounds, four to six shells each, hit the Green Zone today (Wednesday March 26) lasting from morning until a little after noon, creating explosions and columns of black smoke that could be seen from far away, following similar shelling yesterday. VOI quotes the US spokesman to the effect three employees of the US embassy were wounded, without other details. The VOI English-language account gives that much information. Its Arabic-language version adds something else too: One of the witnesses said one of the shells landed on Building 17 in the April 28 complex, which is located in front of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, killing one civilian and wounding four others. At a press conference on Wednesday evening a US General explained the concept behind what has been going on in the last few days, and VOI leads its account of his remarks this way: The official spokesman for the American forces said Wednesday that the military operations that have been going on in the provinces of Baghdad and Basra are not a war being waged by the Iraqi government against the Sadrist movement's Mahdi Army, nor is it a war between America and Iran. Rather, this is a completely Iraqi initiative, with the Prime Minister making the decisions, to put an end to the outlaws who are hiding behind the cover of religion and politics.

If we recall that yesterday Petraeus said Iran was behind the shelling of the Green Zone, we can see that today's is a much more nuanced message.

US Embassy Personnel in Baghdad Told Not To Leave 'Reinforced Structures' Due to Incoming Insurgent Fire
27.03.07. M. Lee, Huffington Post. In a memo sent Thursday to embassy staff and obtained by The Associated Press, the department says employees are required to wear helmets, body armor and other protective gear if they must venture outside and strongly advises them to sleep in blast-resistant locations instead of the less secure trailers that most occupy.

Iraq: 2 guards to Iraq's vice president killed during Green Zone shelling
28.03.08. IHT.

Baghdad curfew extended indefinitely
29.03.08. Reuters. ... "Moqtada al-Sadr asks his followers not to deliver weapons to the government. Weapons should be turned over only to a government which can expel the (U.S.) occupiers," Sadr aide Hassan Zargani told Reuters by telephone.

Iraq: New Restrictions on US Embassy
29.03.08. AP. The U.S. State Department on Saturday tightened restrictions on embassy staff in Baghdad, ordering all employees to sleep inside reinforced structures and to use only armored vehicles when traveling in the Green Zone due to incoming rocket fire.

See US/UK BASES IN IRAQ, Part II. The South : Falcon-Al-Sarq, Tallil, Shaibah Updates: MEANWHILE, IN BASRA ...

Baghdad Green Zone hit by mortars -police
31.03.08. Reuters.

Iraq attacks decline, but Green Zone hit
31.03.08. LA Times. At least three rockets or mortar rounds were fired at Baghdad's fortified Green Zone today, U.S. officials said, despite an order by radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr to his followers to end weeklong clashes that have killed more than 350 people in the capital and across southern Iraq.

Report: US Embassy moving elsewhere. Sunni group claims GreenZone attacks
31.03.08. Arablinks/uruknet. General Faisal AlAsafi, commander of a Green Zone entrance-protection unit, told AlArab that American Ambassador Ryan Crocker gave the order Saturday night to more the location of the Baghdad Embassy, temporarily, from the Green Zone to an alternate location, which he didn't specify. He said a crew composed of dozens of officials and diplomats moved the contents of the embassy to another location toward the west[ern part of] Baghdad, fearing additional rocket attacks on the Green Zone, insisting that the move is a temporary one, with the aim of the success of the joint forces in stopping the rocket attacks on the Green Zone, and pointing out that the British and Australian embassies might take the same decision in the coming hours.

APRIL 2008

Baghdad's Green Zone Turns Red
02.04.08. Afif Sarhan, IOL Correspondent / uruknet. With volleys of mortars and rockets raining down on a daily basis for weeks, the Green Zone, home to the government seat and US and UK embassies, is increasingly loosing its reputation as Baghdad most secured district. "We wake and sleep everyday scared that any time a rocket might fall over our heads," an employee in a foreign embassy told IslamOnline.net, asking not to be named.

More remarks on the depopulation of the Green Zone
02.04.08. Badger, Arablinks/uruknet. The lead editorial in AlQuds alArabi this morning lists a number of reasons why Bush's "good-news honeymoon" in Iraq is ending, including the sudden increase in deaths in the statistics for the month of March, the failure of Maliki to weaken the Sadrists, and what the editorialist calls the danger of a split in the Sadrist ranks, with one group devoting itself to combating the occupation forces. Then the editorialist says this: But the most important phenomenon, which overshadows most of the other developments in Iraq, is the exposure of the Green Zone, the most secure location in Iraq, to daily rocket bombardments, something that has motivated many diplomats and journalists and parliamentarians who went there seeking safety, to flee from the Green Zone to outside of Iraq, following the fall of a large number of injured persons in this attack. Note that this is a little different from the news reports in AlArab and AlQuds AlArabi itself, which talked about moving to safer locations within Iraq (the AlQuds news report referred to moves by American Embassy people to the big American base at the Baghdad Airport), not moving out of the country altogether.

Green Zone Defeat? 'Handed Over' to a Government Called Sadr
02.04.08. Ali al-Fadhily /Dahr Jamail, IPS / global research. Occupation forces no longer control the Green Zone.Despite the huge media campaign led by U.S. officials and a complicit corporate-controlled media to convince the world of U.S. success in Iraq, emerging facts on the ground show massive failure. / The date March 25 of this year will be remembered as the day of truth through five years of occupation. / "Mehdi army militias controlled all Shia and mixed parts of Baghdad in no time," a Baghdad police colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS... /"This failure takes Iraq to point zero and even worse," Brigadier-General Kathum Alwan of the Iraqi army told IPS in Baghdad. "We must admit that the formation of our forces was wrong, as we saw how our officers deserted their posts, leaving their vehicles for militias." / Alwan added, "Not a single unit of our army and police stood for their duty in Baghdad, leaving us wondering what to do. Most of the officers who left their posts were members of Badr brigades and the Dawa Party, who should have been most faithful to Maliki's government." /The Green Zone of Baghdad where the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government and parliament buildings are located, was hit by missiles. General Petraeus appeared at a press conference to accuse Iran of being behind the shelling of the zone that is supposed to be the safest area in Iraq. At least one U.S. citizen was killed in the attacks, and two others were injured. / "The Green Zone looked deserted as most U.S. and Iraqi personnel were ordered to take shelter deep underground," an engineer who works for a foreign company in the zone told IPS. "It seemed that this area too was under curfew. No place in Iraq is safe any more."

State Extends Blackwater's Deal a Year
04.04.08. ANNE GEARAN, AP / Washington Post / kegitgov. Amid investigations into fatal shootings of civilians and allegations of tax violations, Blackwater USA's multimillion-dollar contract to protect diplomats in Baghdad has been renewed, the State Department said Friday. Iraqis angered by renewal of Blackwater contract (05.04.08. Reuters)

US soldiers killed in Green Zone
06.04.08. BBC. Three US service personnel have been killed and 31 wounded by rocket attacks on the Green Zone and a base elsewhere in Baghdad, the US military has said.

U.S. and Iraqis Battle Militias to End Attacks
07.04.08. E. Goode / M. Gordon, NY Times. Sharp fighting broke out in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on Sunday as American and Iraqi troops sought to control neighborhoods used by Shiite militias to fire rockets and mortars into the nearby Green Zone. / But the operation failed to stop the attacks on the heavily fortified zone, headquarters for Iraq’s central government and the American Embassy here. By day’s end, at least two American soldiers had been killed and 17 wounded in the zone, one of the worst daily tolls for the American military in the most heavily protected part of Baghdad. Altogether, at least three American soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, and at least 20 Iraqis were killed, mostly in Sadr City. .. / The Green Zone attacks were, symbolically at least, a sign that forces hostile to the United States are still able to strike at the American nerve center and seat of government power in the capital of Iraq.

See: THE BATTLE FOR BASRA TIMELINE: Footsteps to U.S. War in Iran? (08.04.08)

Anxiety Rises Over Vulnerable Housing In Iraqi Green Zone
07.04.08. Sholnn Freeman, Washington Post. A little after sunrise on Easter Sunday, a mortar shell or rocket crashed into Paul Converse's trailer inside the Green Zone, the rigorously defended seat of U.S. power in Iraq. Converse, who once told his brother he felt safer in Iraq than on American freeways, died the next day. / Converse's death has underscored the vulnerability of housing facilities in the Green Zone to artillery and missile attack, spreading fear among thousands of security contractors, interpreters, American soldiers and embassy personnel. / A 56-year-old government auditor, Converse was the first of four Americans to die in Green Zone shelling in the past two weeks. ... / According to the Ministry of Interior, at least 14 non-Americans have died in the Green Zone since the March 23 attack that killed Converse... / Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said "hardened" quarters for employees are under construction at a new embassy compound in the Green Zone that will open to staff members in May.

Tarek Ayoub, Photo AFP/AL JAZEERA

The Iraq Invasion Five years On
08.04.08. al jazeera focus.

Iraqi Army: 52 Blasts Hit Baghdad Green Zone Last Week
08.04.08. AFP / Nasdac. The Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government and the U.S. embassy, has come under sustained attacks in recent weeks, causing the deaths of four Americans, including two soldiers, and two of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's Iraqi guards.

52 blasts hit Baghdad Green Zone last week: Iraqi army
08.04.08. AFP. At least 52 rockets or mortar bombs hit the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad in the past week, Brigadier General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi army in the capital, said on Tuesday. / Atta said another 90 mortar bombs or rockets struck various other places in Baghdad over the same period. / The Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, has come under sustained attacks in recent weeks, causing the deaths of four Americans, including two soldiers, and two of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s Iraqi guards.

Pentagon tells lawmaker not to air Green Zone video again
08.04.08. McClatchy. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican, traveled to Iraq with other lawmakers for the first time on March 22. The video was the second incident stemming from that trip that has drawn unwanted attention to McHenry. Earlier, he was criticized for berating a guard in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone for not allowing him into a gym there because the congressman did not have the proper identification credential. / The new criticism stems from a video that was featured on his Web site last Friday. Shot in the Green Zone, it showed McHenry gesturing to a building behind him and saying that one of 11 rockets “hit just over my head.” Then he named two other places struck by the rockets.

Green Zone attack on war anniversary
09.04.08. WLOS. At least 12 Americans have been killed in Iraq this week. Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and British Embassies and Iraqi government offices, is again under attack today. / Black smoke from a rocket or mortar shell billowed into the sky. Loudspeakers have warned people to "take cover and await further instructions." The zone has come under renewed attack in the past two weeks, coinciding with fighting between rival Shiite factions and the U.S.-backed government.
and
Blasts Heard From Baghdad's Green Zone
09.04.08. AP.

7 Americans killed this month in Green Zone; U.S. responds with air power
10.04.08. world tribune.

US Envoy to Iraq Says Embassy Ready
11.04.08. MATTHEW LEE, AP. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq [ryan Crocker] said Friday that American diplomats will start moving into the new embassy in Baghdad at the end of May, and should be safer in the more fortified complex inside the so-called Green Zone, which has been hit repeatedly by insurgent rocket fire. / "We will begin moving into the new embassy -- some of the office space and the apartments -- probably the end of next month, the beginning of June, so that will certainly improve quality of life and provide some added protection," Crocker said. / .. Ryan Crocker, also defended the work of private security contractors like Blackwater USA, which has been accused of using unnecessary deadly force while protecting U.S. diplomats in Baghdad, as "absolutely essential" to the functioning of embassy staff.

Our Forgotten Shame in the Green Zone
13.04.08. Reggie, TV News LIES / uruknet. I’ll admit it, I did not remember either. Even though we reported the story last year, so much has happened in Iraq that somehow I, too, had forgotten. The story, like so many others, had been swept under the proverbial rug by the corporate media, and within a day or so the world forgot about the Filipino workers in Iraq. / But a few days ago, I received a personal email from an officer serving in Iraq and housed in the Green Zone, and the story came back to me, full blast. Just a few words in the message reminded me of the forgotten horror that must be added to the countless crimes this administration is committing in Iraq.

US takes over new Baghdad embassy
14.04.08. YAHOO. The government had held off on taking legal possession of the $736 million complex until construction problems and delays were resolved. An order signed Monday covers the main embassy building but not additional office space now set aside for the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

U.S. plans to protect Green Zone
16.04.08. UPI. The U.S. military plans to create a buffer zone in the southern part of Sadr City to prevent militants launching rockets into the Green Zone in Baghdad. ... / The military plans to wall off the six to eight blocks in Sadr City that have been used as a launch zone, an official told CNN.

US eases security rules for diplomats in Baghdad
16.04.08. AP| Embassy employees were told in a Wednesday notice obtained by The Associated Press that they are no longer required to wear body armor, helmets and protective eyewear while outside and that restrictions on movement inside the Green Zone have been lifted. The rules were introduced last month amid an increase in insurgent rocket fire.

Iraq: 50 Dead After Suicide Attack on Fun
17.04.08. AP / WTEN. .. Today's bombing comes on the heels of suicide attacks earlier this week that killed 60 people in four major Iraqi cities. .. / And two mortar shells landed in Baghdad's Green Zone. There were no reports of casualties.

Petraeus' obscene obfuscations
18.04.08. letters, rutland herald.

Rice visits Iraq as Baghdad battles erupt
20.04.08. ABC. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has backed Iraq's crackdown on militias in a visit to Baghdad, where the worst fighting in weeks erupted after Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened all-out war. / Rockets blasted the fortified Green Zone compound where Dr Rice met Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials and praised their month-old campaign against Sadr's followers.

Why Does the Bush Regime Want to Rule Iraq?
23.04.08. Paul Craig Roberts, ICH. Bush invaded Iraq with the intent of turning Iraq into an American colony. The so-called government of Maliki is not a government. Maliki is the well paid front man for U.S. colonial rule. Maliki's government does not exist outside the protected Green Zone, the headquarters of the American occupation.

700 rockets, mortar rounds fired in Baghdad in a month: US
23.04.08. afriasia.. Of these 114, hit the highly fortified Green Zone, also known as the International Zone (IZ), where the Iraqi government and US embassy are based, he [Colonel Allen Batschelet] said.

Baghdad Green Zone blasted under cover of storm
27.04.08. Wisam Mohammed and Peter Graff, Reuters. Militants bombarded Baghdad's Green Zone with rockets on Sunday, taking advantage of the cover of a blinding dust storm to launch one of the heaviest strikes in weeks on the fortified compound. .. / Iraqi police said eight missiles or mortars had hit the Green Zone and another 14 fell in other parts of the Iraqi capital, killing two people and wounding 20. .. / Militiamen have fired 700 missiles and mortars over the past month, but U.S. forces had said they believed they had reduced the fighters' ability to strike the Green Zone by occupying the part of the Sadr City slum closest to it.

New US Embassy in Iraq Can't House All Its Workers
25.04.08. Bradley Brooks, AP / truthout. , "The new US Embassy complex does not have enough fortified living quarters for hundreds of diplomats and other workers, who must remain temporarily in trailers without

Woman, child killed in attack on Baghdad's Green Zone (2nd Lead)
28.04.08. monsters and critics.

MAY 2008

Mortars, rockets raise Baghdad tensions
02.05.08. USA Today. Raed Falah Hasan has lost count of how many times rockets or mortar shells aimed at the nearby international Green Zone have fallen short and landed in his high-rise apartment complex.

US-backed plan sees shiny future for Green Zone in Iraq
05.05.08. AP. Bradley Brooks, Qassim Abdul=Zahra. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.That's all part of a five-year development "dream list" — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad's future. [dream on].

Golf in the green zone
06.05.08. AP.

Iraq Plans $1 Billion Zone Of Influence Near New U.S. Embassy In Baghdad
08.05.08. all headline news. Marriott International is considering opening a hotel in Baghdad's Green Zone, in response to a request from U.S. government officials who want to help Iraq revive its economy through foreign investments and economic activities. [dream on]

Iraqis allege abuse at British embassy
08.05.08. the age.au. An Iraqi woman, who worked as a cleaning lady, told British diplomats that the head of KBR had asked her to stay the night and promised to double her wage in return. / Her refusal allegedly resulted in a pay cut and she was later dismissed.

shiites_launch_more_rockets_toward_baghdads_green_zone/">Shi'ites launch more rockets toward Baghdad's Green Zone
10.05.08. AP, boston globe. .Shi'ite militants launched rockets toward the fortified Green Zone yesterday, taking advantage of a sandstorm that gave cover from attacks by US aircraft. Some rockets fell short, including one that damaged the British Broadcasting Corp. bureau. / At least seven other rocket explosions were heard. But US authorities did not confirm any strikes inside the Green Zone, which includes the US Embassy and much of the Iraqi government.

Green Zone Handed Off With Little Fanfare
02.01.09. Washington Post. Maliki instead attended an unannounced event where he watched what might have been one of the most stirring signs of the new Iraq: the raising of the Iraqi flag over what just a day earlier had been the U.S. Embassy. The decision to keep reporters away from this ceremony hinted at the unease and uncertainty both sides feel about the transition.

US opens world's largest foreign mission in Iraq
06.01.09. CSM. The $592 million, 104-acre compound that was dedicated in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone on Monday is meant to symbolize a long-term commitment to Iraq.

Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in the UK

The url to Iraq: Green Zone Blowback Timeline is : http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/05/iraq-green-zone-blowback-index-timeline.html

The shorter url is: http://tinyurl.com/2hh7j4