US forces are switching tactics in Iraq to take a less confrontational approach to civilians in response to criticism from British military commanders that they have been too tough.
American commanders are ordering marines and soldiers manning checkpoints or travelling in convoys to be less trigger-happy. Instead of firing into the air or at civilians to warn them off as they approach checkpoints or convoys in cars, troops nervous about suicide bombers are being encouraged to use strobe lights and other means to signal that they should slow down or back off. Troops are also being told to be less rough during searches.

Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq, has sent his commanders articles from the British press that criticised US forces for being unnecessarily tough.

A spokeswoman for the US-led coalition forces in Baghdad yesterday refused to confirm the new approach was being adopted: “This falls under rules of engagement and is completely classified.”
guardian.co.uk

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraqi police have found 36 bullet-riddled bodies of men shot dead in apparent sectarian killings as lawmakers convened the first working session of parliament since it was elected in December.

An interior ministry official said 14 bodies were found in eastern Baghdad Wednesday, while 20 other corpses were recovered from various areas in the capital late Tuesday.

Two more bodies were found in the town of Al-Mussayib, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad.

Hundreds of such bullet-riddled bodies, the result of tit-for-tat sectarian killings, have been found across the country, mostly in Baghdad, since the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in February.
news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (AP) Ñ Despite large-scale U.S. support, Iraq and Afghanistan rank among the world’s 10 most vulnerable states, according to a private survey being released Tuesday.

In its second annual “failed states” index, Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace concluded that Sudan is the country under the most severe stress because of violent internal conflict.

Eleven of the 20 most vulnerable countries of the 148 examined in the survey are in Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ivory Coast, both chronically volatile in recent years, ranked second and third.

Each country was given a score based on data from numerous available sources. A “failing state” was described as one in which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.

Sudan received low grades in virtually all areas surveyed, including protection of human rights, “group grievances” against the government and numbers of refugees and displaced persons. The western Sudanese region of Darfur has generated well over 2 million displaced since 2003.

According to the review, the situation in Iraq (No. 4) and Afghanistan (No. 10) deteriorated since 2005, the first year the survey was taken.

“For Iraq, the index category that worsened most was human flight,” the report said. “The exodus of Iraq’s professional class has accelerated, leaving the country without the trained citizens it needs to staff important posts.”
usatoday.com

Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran, told the editors of HUMAN EVENTS last week that in the next two to three months he hopes to finalize the organization of a movement aimed at overthrowing the Islamic regime in Tehran and replacing it with a democratic government.

He believes the cause is urgent because of the prospect that Iran may soon develop a nuclear weapon or the U.S. may use military force to preempt that. He hopes to offer a way out of this dilemma: a revolution sparked by massive civil disobedience in which the masses in the streets are backed by elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States, said he has been in contact with elements of the Revolutionary Guard that would be willing to play such a role, and activists who could help spark the civil disobedience.

He also said that the U.S. and other governments can help by imposing ‘smart sanctions’ on the leaders of Iranian regime, but he categorically opposes U.S. military intervention.

After the revolution he envisions, Pahlavi said, he would be willing to become a constitutional monarch in Iran if an Iranian constitutional convention offered him that role. ‘I’m ready to serve in that capacity,’ he said. ‘If the people so choose, it would be my greatest honor.’

The following are excerpts from the interview with the editors of HUMAN EVENTS in which Pahlavi explained why and how he thinks his country can be transformed from an Islamist dictatorship into a free democracy.
humaneventsonline.com

Oh brother…

Ringed by nuclear states, Iran’s atomic programme is scarcely unreasonable. So why has Washington manufactured this crisis?

Till now, what has prevented the crisis in Iraq from becoming a total debacle for the United States has been the open collaboration of the Iranian clerics. Iranian foreign policy – fragmentary and opportunist – has always been determined by the needs and interests of the clerical state rather than any principled anti-imperialist strategy. In the past, this has led to a de facto collaboration with Washington in Afghanistan and Iraq. During the Iran-Iraq war, the clerics had no hesitation in buying arms from the Israeli regime to fight Iraq, then backed by Britain and the US. In the wake of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq – hoping, no doubt, that clearing the path for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and Mullah Omar might have won them a respite – the regime took a tougher stance on the nuclear question.
guardian.co.uk

In a replay of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction charade, neoconservative supporters of George W. Bush are pushing the U.S. intelligence community to take a more alarmist view about Iran’s nuclear program, only this time, the nation’s top spy John Negroponte is resisting the pressure unlike former CIA chief George Tenet.

Tenet joined in Bush’s hyping of the WMD evidence about Iraq, famously telling the President that the case was a ‘slam dunk.’ But Negroponte is defying hardliners who want a worst-case scenario on Iran’s capabilities. Instead, he is citing Iran’s limited progress in refining uranium and their use of a cascade of only 164 centrifuges.

‘According to the experts that I consult, achieving, getting 164 centrifuges to work is still a long way from having the capacity to manufacture sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon,’ Negroponte said in an interview with NBC News on April 20.

‘Our assessment is that the prospects of an Iranian weapon are still a number of years off, and probably into the next decade,’ said Negroponte, who was appointed last year as the Director of National Intelligence, a new post that supplanted the traditional primacy of the CIA director as the head of the U.S. intelligence community.

Expressing a similar view about Iran’s nuclear program in a speech at the National Press Club, Negroponte said, ‘I think it’s important that this issue be kept in perspective.’

In effect, the Director of National Intelligence was splashing cold water on the fevered assessment of Iran’s nuclear progress favored by the neoconservatives. Some Bush supporters are now complaining that Negroponte has shown disloyalty to the President by siding with intelligence analysts who reject the direst predictions on Iran.
tompaine.com

Has the Black Bridge undergone a conversion? Oh I think not…

PARIS, France (CNN) — The U.S. diplomat heading crucial talks on Iran’s nuclear ambitions has predicted full European support for a U.N. Security Council resolution that would allow sanctions or even force.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s meeting in Paris, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told CNN that backing from France, Britain and Germany would see the implementation of a key U.N. resolution.

“I think you will see a serious Chapter 7 resolution emerge in the next couple of days at the United Nations,” he said.
cnn.com

Washington, May 03: The United States is ready to form a coalition of countries to take sanctions against Iran if the UN Security Council does not agree measures, the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton said.

Bolton told a Congress committee that the United States and its allies would press ahead with a first UN Security Council resolution condemning Iran even if Russia and China abstain.

He added that if one of the permanent members of the Security Council vetoed a later measure ordering sanctions, the United States would seek alternative ways to punish Iran.

“If we were faced with a veto by one of the permanent members, if for whatever reason the Council couldn’t fulfill its responsibilities, then I think it would be incumbent on US, and I’m sure we would press ahead to ask other countries or other groups of countries to impose those sanctions,” Bolton said.
zeenews.com

A strike called to protest against the killings of 35 Hindus has shut down parts of Indian-administered Kashmir.
Suspected Islamic militants killed them in two separate incidents in the state’s Jammu region, which is dominated by Hindus.

The killings came days ahead of scheduled talks between the Indian prime minister and separatists.

India says the attacks, the worst since it agreed a 2003 truce with Pakistan, are aimed at derailing peace efforts.

On Tuesday, Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil travelled to Kashmir but was unable to visit the site of the attack because of bad weather.

The strike in protest against the killings has affected life in all the major towns of the state’s Jammu region.

No group has come forward to say they carried out the killings which have been blamed on separatist militants.
bbc.co.uk

VADODARA, India — Authorities imposed a curfew Tuesday in the city of Vadodara in western India, after the demolition of an Islamic shrine led to Muslim-Hindu clashes.

Angry mobs continued to throw stones at each other Tuesday morning, The Indian Express reported, following violence that killed four and injured 21 a day earlier.

On Monday, a crowd had gathered to protest the demolition of a 300-year-old shrine and tomb of a Sufi saint. Violence erupted and police opened fire on the restive crowd.

Local authorities said the shrine was not a protected structure and was demolished as part of a city development project. Many Hindu temples have been destroyed under the same plan.

Muslim leaders said the act was a pre-planned move to disturb communal peace.
wpherald.com