Perspective: On This Day In Iraq -- March 28th edition

March 28, 2005: Iraqi graduates from the Center South Academy escort a "detainee" during a demonstration of the tactics learned at the Academy, at Camp Delta, in Al Kut, Iraq.


March 28, 2002:

Arab summit rejects any attack on Iraq

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The Arab League summit's final declaration Thursday rejects any attack on Iraq.

"We reject the threat of attacking Arab countries, especially Iraq. We reaffirm our complete rejection of any attack on Iraq," the declaration says. "And we affirm our rejection of any security threat on any Arab country, and we consider it a security threat to the Arab states as a whole."

The statement goes on to say, "We demand the respect of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, security and unity."

Read the rest at CNN


March 28, 2003:

US warns Syria and Iran on Iraq

The US said on Friday night military supplies that threatened the lives of American forces were being shipped to Iraq from Syria and told Damascus it would be held accountable for "hostile acts."

The dramatic warning to Iraq's neighbours, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, also said any Iranian-backed forces operating inside Iraq would be treated as enemy forces.

Mr Rumsfeld said military supplies, including night-vision equipment, were being shipped across the Syrian border to Iraqi troops.

Read the rest at the Financial Times


March 28, 2004:

Protests as U.S. closes Iraqi paper

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Several thousand Iraqis protested the closure of a newspaper Sunday, chanting anti-U.S. slogans and burning American flags outside the newspaper's office in Baghdad.

The U.S.-led civil administration in Iraq closed the Baghdad newspaper Al Hawsa for 60 days, accusing its publishers of inciting violence against coalition troops.

The paper is published by followers of prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

"If the Coalition forces are going to keep on presenting us with such messages... they can just dream about any sort of end to terrorism," a statement from the newspaper said. "And they can also dream that we will stay quiet and step down from what we believe."

Read the rest at CNN


March 28, 2005:

Iraq may get government soon

The Shiite Muslim politician likely to be Iraq's next prime minister said the country's long-awaited government could be formed within days, an accomplishment that would mark the end of nearly two months of tortured negotiations after the nation's first free elections in a half-century.

Iraqis however, have been reporting they were near a deal for at least a month.

Insurgents, meanwhile, continued efforts to thwart political progress by blowing up a car Saturday near a US military patrol in Baghdad, killing two US soldiers and wounding two others. A day earlier, the military said, a US Marine died in action in Anbar province, the insurgent heartland stretching from west of Baghdad to the Jordanian and Syrian borders.

More 1,520 members of the US military have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion, according to an Associated Press count.

Read the rest at the Taipei Times


March 28, 2006:

Rumsfeld: U.S. Struggles to Combat Anti-American Propaganda

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today the United States military has not figured out how to combat anti-American propaganda by Iraqi militants, including a widely reported claim that a Sunday attack by U.S. and Iraqi special forces targeted innocent Shiite Muslims praying in a mosque.

The raid, which killed 16 followers of the Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr--an outspoken opponent of the U.S. presence in Iraq--targeted a terrorist cell responsible for attacks on soldiers and civilians, U.S. military officials say. But a false claim by Sadr's aides that a mosque was targeted received widespread attention, Rumsfeld said.

"Clearly, the United States government has not gotten to the point where we are as deft and clever and facile as the enemy that is perfectly capable of lying, having it printed all over the world, and there's no penalty for having lied," Rumsfeld said at an afternoon news conference at the Pentagon. "Indeed, there was a reward [for the enemy] because a great many people read the lie and believed it."

Read the rest at the Washington Post