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01/07/2006:
"Iraq's Largest Refinery Shut By Insurgent Attacks"
(AP) BAGHDAD - The largest oil refinery in Iraq is closed again.
An Iraqi official says the refinery located about 155 miles north of Baghdad had to be closed after insurgents ambushed a tanker truck carrying gas from the facility Wednesday.
The official also tells Dow Jones Newswires that pumping to the refinery has stopped because its reserves are full.
The ambush saw four tankers destroyed, another 15 damaged and three Iraqi army vehicles blown up.
The refinery that pumps about 140,000 barrels a day had to be closed last month after insurgents threatened to kill drivers transporting oil and blow up their trucks.
Despite large oil reserves, Iraq frequently suffers from gas shortages because its refining capacity is so low.
uruknet.info
Kurdistan: Meet the New Bosses
The neocons in Washington love to talk about how they're promoting freedom and democracy in Iraq. They often cite as their example the country's Kurdish population, staunch allies of Washington, who have been protected by the American military since no-fly zones were imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.
But just how much freedom is there in northern Iraq?
Consider the case of Dr. Kamal Sayid Qadir, a well-known Kurdish writer, lawyer, and university lecturer who holds Austrian citizenship. He was picked up by the Kurdish security service in Arbil on Oct. 26 and sentenced to 30 years behind bars.
Qadir's arrest is clearly an affront to freedom, and his case has been taken up by key human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the international writers group PEN, as well as the Iraqi Journalists Guild. Dozens of prominent Kurdish journalists and intellectuals around the world have also signed a petition calling for his immediate release.
Qadir was arrested because he was a fierce critic of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – the two armed Kurdish factions who have ruled northern Iraq under U.S. auspices.
Earlier this year, for example, he wrote that Kurdish leaders have failed to "transform Iraqi Kurdistan into a model democracy for Iraq, or even the Middle East, because, instead, the Kurdish parties transformed Iraqi Kurdistan into a fortress for oppression, theft of public funds, and serious abuses of human rights like murder, torture, amputation of ears and noses, and rape."
Mourning Turns to Anger in Iraqi Shi'ite City
REVIVED INSURGENCY OR DESPERATE ACTS?
The insurgency has taken off again after what seemed to be a lull in activity.
U.S. officials have been insisting that there would be a rise in violence after the elections, but the ferocity of the attacks cannot be attributed to that reason alone.
Until yesterday most of the attacks were concentrated against the Iraqi police. But these last two days it seems the targets are more wide spread: a market place, a funeral, a convoy of gas tankers, the walkway between two shrines, as well as an Iraqi police recruiting center.
A visiting Iraqi journalist commented that the situation is going to get worse. He thinks the insurgents now feel empowered because they believe the American troops will start to pull out.
His fear and the fear of many Iraqis is that lawlessness is they something will have to live with for long time.
But today American officials emphasized that these are desperate acts by an insurgency in its dying throes to derail the march to democracy.
