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The following is the Sept. 29, 2020 Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Iraq and U.S. Policy

Al Kadhimi Government Facing Numerous Challenges

In May 2020, Iraqs parliament confirmed Iraqi National Intelligence Service director Mustafa al Kadhimi as Prime Minister, and in June finished confirmation of his cabinet members, bringing months of political deadlock over government leadership to a close. Upon taking office, Al Kadhimi declared that his government would serve in a transitional capacity and would work to improve security and fight corruption while preparing for early elections. Iraqi authorities have instituted curfews and travel restrictions in response to the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which threatens public health, the economy, and public finances.

Prime Minister Al Kadhimis priorities include:

Al Kadhimi has called for early elections in June 2021 under a revamped electoral system, but fiscal pressures, political rivalries, and limited institutional capacity present serious hurdles to reform. A series of high profile assassinations in 2020 of protest leaders and of a prominent security researcher have intensified public scrutiny of Al Kadhimis credibility and his governments ability to act against armed groups operating outside state authority. Ongoing rocket and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks against U.S. and Iraqi facilities and convoys further underscore these concerns. Islamic State insurgents also remain active, especially in rural areas.

To date, Al Kadhimis administration has focused on COVID-19 risks and responding to related economic and fiscal fallout. The Prime Minister visited the United States in August 2020 for strategic dialogue talks. Throughout September 2020, resurgent reform demands from Iraqi activists and U.S. pressure for action against Iran-backed armed groups dominated the policy agenda in Iraq, as COVID-19 infection rates continued to rise.

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Report on Iraq and US Policy - USNI News - USNI News

A GROUP of tradesmen who were held hostage in Iraq have told how they initially didnt think they were in danger because they were used to a military presence living in Northern Ireland.

In 1990, the painters and decorators travelled to Baghdad with construction company Mivan to work on one of Saddam Husseins palaces, a job that was expected to last just a few weeks.

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But when Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait, they found themselves at the centre of an international crisis.

Even worse, they were stranded at the mercy of the evil dictator who used them as pawns in his dealings with the Margaret Thatcher-led UK government.

While Hussein referred to them and thousands of other foreign nationals as his guests and heroes of peace, they remained trapped in Iraq for almost five months.

Now, 30 years after they were dramatically released, their story is being told in a new BBC documentary, True North: Belfast to Baghdad.

Iraq was an attractive country for construction work at the time, and the men had no qualms about travelling there.

Engineer Michael Sands recalled how he had absolutely no concern at all about the job in Iraq.

He explained: Wed all lived through the Troubles.

I was ten in 1969 so I was well used to the Troubles and a militarised country so it didnt have a bearing on my decision to go.

Following Iraqs invasion of Kuwait, family back home were terrified for their safety, but the men didnt realise the seriousness as they only had access to Iraqs heavily controlled media.

Michael ONeill recalled: On the newspapers it was that Kuwait had a revolution and they were there to help, which was lies.

As a US-led coalition prepared for war, the men suddenly stopped getting paid and were forced to move from their hotel to staff houses.

They stopped working in protest, but were then warned that they wouldnt receive exit visas.

Over time, hostages from other countries were allowed home, but due to the UKs strong stance against Iraq, anyone from Britain or NI remained trapped.

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Hussein finally agreed to let them go after five months, fearing the consequences if any foreign citizens were killed on Iraqi soil during the war.

Painter Paul McCabe recalled: Iraq was a lovely country. I know Saddam was a tyrant but it was still a lovely country and the people were great.

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Irish tradesmen recall being held hostage in Iraq after travelling to work on one of Saddam Husseins pa - The Irish Sun

The Army intends to close two units developed to fix problems faced by troops fighting Americas wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the service said in a statement Friday.

The Asymmetric Warfare Group and the Rapid Equipping Force will be deactivated by Sept. 30, 2021, the statement said. Personnel and resources from both organizations will be absorbed into the larger force, the Army said.

The closures are due to a shift in focus away from counterinsurgency operations, the Army said, toward large-scale combat and great power competition, a term that often refers to countries such as Russia and China.

The decision comes as the U.S. looks to end its war in Afghanistan as part of a deal with the Taliban, with troop levels expected to drop to between 4,000 and 5,000 by the end of November, according to congressional testimony last month.

The Asymmetric Warfare Group, or AWG, sends military and civilian consultants to units in training and on the battlefield. The group, which began its missions in 2004, originally focused on countering the improvised explosive device threat in Iraq and grew to more than 300 members.

Over the years, the groups projects included a fast-acting smoke grenade to obscure snipers, a system to remotely shoot dirt off suspicious mounds to check for buried bombs, and a portable tunnel training facility to train soldiers in subterranean warfare.

Advisers, often deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in pairs, also teach combat units how to counter specific enemy tactics.

The Rapid Equipping Force, headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Va., invented new equipment in response to what soldiers deployed to Afghanistan said they needed.

The organization debuted in 2002 and has a team based in Bagram Airfield. There, engineers talk to soldiers about challenges faced and try to create solutions.

In a visit by Stars and Stripes to the team in 2019, engineers showed off battery holsters, hands-free radio attachments and other inventions for soldiers manufactured via a 3D printer.

Research by both organizations will be saved and maintained by the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, the service said in its statement.

The decision to end the two organizations comes after the closure of Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands, another program created during the War on Terror. The AfPak Hands was much lauded at the time for training advisers in languages such as Dari, Pashto or Urdu. But that program faced criticism for stifling the careers of those who joined and ended Wednesday.

Critics said the Armys decision to focus on large-scale warfare and shutter programs that addressed the counterinsurgency warfare common in Iraq and Afghanistan may be short sighted.

This is a familiar cycle, said Rebecca Zimmerman, an independent researcher formerly at the RAND Corp, on Twitter on Friday. The Army always has to be told to do the missions it dislikes It lasts as long as senior leaders force it and then fades into not quite memory.

lawrence.jp@stripes.comTwitter: @jplawrence3

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Army to shut down units created to help soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq - Stars and Stripes

The Fault Line: Bush, Blair and Iraq | PodcastThe Heist | The Center for Public Integrity

A couple of enlightening shows this week about how American and British politics work. The first, The Fault Line: Bush, Blair and Iraq, concerns itself with the politics of the fairly recent past: the 18 months between 9/11 and the 2003 Iraq war. Or: how Tony Blair and George W Bush fell in love.

Hosted by David Dimbleby, whose podcast on the rise of Rupert Murdoch, The Sun King, was such a success last year, The Fault Line, produced by Somethin Else, is a clear and classy listen. Informative, too: Dimbers, as ex-host of Question Time, has an enviable contact list, and we hear from many important behind-the-scenesters. In last weeks episode, the first, we met Bill Murray (not that one), a US spy who repeatedly informed the White House that his intelligence indicated that Saddam Hussein did not have any weapons of mass destruction. This week, well hear from Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador who says he was told to get up the arse of the White House and stay there. Dimbleby gives us little portraits of each. Murray: quite a conspicuous person he sticks out in a crowd; Meyer: slightly maverick, freewheeling. He has an exemplary presenting style: honest without being trashy, measured without being boring.

Im not sure what I expected from this podcast. I think I thought I knew the story, so worried that I might be bored. I was very wrong: the show reminds you of those months before the invasion, but also gives context, unpicks relationships, underpins everything with insider info.

Plus, The Fault Line has something else on its mind. Dimbleby asserts that this particular time, this particular US-UK love affair, laid the foundations for the current breakdown of trust between the electorate and our politicians. The podcast has not quite got there yet (an interview with Blair is promised, as well as Alastair Campbell.

Until then, enjoy such little gems as the time that Dimbleby interviewed the then US secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, and Rumsfelds PR, after the interview, said, faintly: Well, I think thats lost me my job. Or, in the second episode, when Lorna Fitzsimons, voted in as Rochdales MP in the 1997 election, recalls campaigning for New Labour: It was wave after wave after wave of possibility and excitement. And people got involved: fourth-generation single parents, Asian women who had never been in politics before.

Enough of the good ol days: lets tackle the now. The Heist, from the USs Center for Public Integrity, has just released its third episode. Its been getting a lot of attention in the US, not least because of Trumps recent tax revelations. The Heist also talks Trump and taxes and amazingly makes this interesting.

In the first episode, we learn about tax cutting. The Orange One was elected in 2016, partly because he promised to reform US taxes. When that didnt happen, many Republican donors were upset. And in an unexpected move, one of these donors, Doug Deason from Dallas, decided to withdraw any financial help to Republican senators until the promised tax reform was passed. Whats more, he got in touch with a lot of other donors and urged them to stop coughing up too. He got them to turn off the money tap; the Dallas piggy bank, he calls it.

A sensible straight-shooter, Deasons job is to invest his familys wealth, and he chooses to do this by investing in politicians. (There are different schemes to do this: the most disturbing is called dark money, as the show explains.) When Sarah Kleiner, from the Center for Public Integrity, asks him why, Deason is clear: he does it because he expects the politicians in whom he invests to do what he wants. Obviously, you sort of buy access, he says. Its no secret.

And the next episode, about Steven Mnuchin, Trumps treasury secretary, is just as jaw-droppingly clear. A sometime banker and film producer, Mnuchin is who he needs to be at any given moment, says Sally Herships, The Heists host. Mnuchins most personally exciting Treasury moment appears to have been getting his signature printed on dollar bills.

The Heist is a revelatory show, easy to understand and very listenable. So listen, understand, throw something in frustration, and then have a cup of tea to calm down.

AppearancesThis is a fiction podcast thats so close to the truth that I thought it was real for the whole of the first episode. Sharon Mashihi is Melanie Barzadeh, an Iranian-American on the verge of having a baby with her on-off older boyfriend. Melanie is in a mid-30s funk: messed up by her personal history and cultural expectations, as well as her own whither-my-life Brooklynite navel-gazing, she genuinely doesnt know what to do in order to create the family life she craves. Produced by The Hearts Kaitlin Prest, simultaneously irritating, moving, insightful and captivating, Appearances is unlike anything else out there.

One of the Family With Nicky CampbellMention family and Nicky Campbell, and youll probably think of ITVs Long Lost Family, which hes co-hosted for years. But this show is about the brilliance of dogs. Campbell pulls in high profile guests Ricky Gervais, Rebecca Front, Chris Packham who relax, completely, when talking about their pets, revealing a softer side that we rarely witness. There is a little bit in the show about how best to look after dogs, but really this is just a chat between dog people about how great each others dogs are. Start with Gary Lineker and Nihal Arthanayake talking (separately) about the grief they felt when their dogs died.

Newsbeat: Coronavirus and StudentsWhen you leave home to go to university, you begin to create your own, new family. So what happens when you have to lock down for 14 days? On Monday, Radio 1s Newsbeat had the bright idea of asking student radio stations to report in. Weve been four days without food, said one student at Manchester. A Nottingham student described his first experience of university as a different version of socialising fear and loneliness is accentuated in our year. Everyone feels isolated, said a guy from Aberystwyth. Im quite homesick at the minute, said a girl at Glasgow. Poor kids.

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The week in audio: The Fault Line: Bush, Blair and Iraq; The Heist review - The Guardian

Its the Crowns theory Al Aazawi intentionally took the child to Iraq and then left her there with family to deprive Mahdi of custody of their child.

But Al Aazawi said he never planned to take his daughter to his homeland and, once there, was unable to convince her to leave.

Did Zainab ever send you a message saying no you can never go to Iraq? Der asked the accused.

I told you, shes the one who suggested to me to go to Iraq for two weeks, Al Aazawi said.

He said he and their daughter were in regular contact with Mahdi throughout their trip.

Al Aazawi said he was reluctant to go to Iraq, but Zahraa insisted they go to see family.

Why didnt you force her to stay in Egypt?

I cant force her, and she gets mad, he said of his daughter.

He said he eventually agreed to go to Iraq for three days, but when it was time to leave, his daughter refused.

Why didnt you just force her (to leave Iraq)? Der asked.

How? Im going to drag her on the street . . . How am I going to force her, tie a rope around her and drag her? Al Aazawi said.

He said he asked his daughter multiple times to return to Calgary, but she refused.

Al Aazawi was arrested when he returned to Canada in April 2019 without Zahraa.

His testimony continues Tuesday.

KMartin@postmedia.com

Twitter: @KMartinCourts

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Calgary father charged with international kidnapping says it was girls mothers idea to take her to Iraq - Calgary Herald