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| Former Indonesia leader Wahid dies Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid - often referred to as Gus Dur - has died, according to party officials. news.bbc.co.uk |
Iraq war inquiry key witnesses: Major General Tim Cross and Edward Chaplin On 7 December the Chilcot inquiry heard from the former UK representative to the US office for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance, and the UK ambassador to Iraq from 2004 to 2005Read the Guardian articleRead the full oral and written testimony given on 7 DecemberOn 7 December the Chilcot inquiry heard from Major General Tim Cross and Edward Chaplin. In the run-up to the war Cross was the UK representative to the US office for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance (ORHA), the agency responsible for drawing up plans for postwar Iraq. He subsequently worked for the coalition provisional authority (CPA), which administered Iraq in the aftermath of the war. Chaplin served as UK ambassador to Iraq from 2004 to 2005, the first British envoy in Iraq for 13 years.Major General Tim CrossCross discussed the lack of postwar planning. In a written statement, he said he had briefed Tony Blair at No 10 on 18 March 2003, two days before the invasion."We talked for about 30 minutes or so. I was as honest about the positions as I could be, essentially briefing that I did not believe postwar planning was anywhere near ready. I told him that there was no clarity on what was going to be needed after the military phase of the operation, nor who would provide it. Although I was confident that we would secure a military victory, I offered my view that we should not begin that campaign until we had a much more coherent postwar plan."Not everyone believed that there would actually be a war; if there was to be one, then there was certainly no consensus that we [the UK] should be involved; there was no coherent UK … view of what postwar Iraq should look like; there was a serious reluctance to take on the US over their views … there was therefore some seriously wishful and woolly and unjoined-up thinking going on."In oral evidence, Cross said: "He [Blair] was engaged. I gave him the background of what we had been doing. We had a very sensible conversation. At the end of it I remember saying, in so many words, I had no doubt we will win in the military. I do not believe we are ready for postwar Iraq. He nodded and didn't say anything particular. I didn't expect him to look me in the eye and say, 'This is terrible, we are going to pull the whole thing off.' I was just one of a number of people briefing him … I hesitate to say I used the word 'disaster'. I may well have used the word 'chaotic'."It has become very common for people to blame the Americans for all of this. I do just not accept that. We, the UK and we, Whitehall, should have done far more to get our minds round this issue."Edward ChaplinOn the lack of competence in Ayad Allawi's interim government"The sheer dysfunctionality, if that's the right word, of the ministerial apparatus was very striking and it was an area in which we gave a lot of our help in the early days."On the impact of Abu Ghraib prison scandal"I think Abu Ghraib did huge damage to the whole image of the enterprise and it took a long time to recover from that."On Iraqi attitudes towards Britain"If you talked to the tribal chiefs, the sheikhs, they would always start conversations with memories – fond memories, they would claim – of dealing with the British. As you know, Arabs can get quite sentimental about this sort of thing. The facts don't always bear out their memories. So I suppose there was some trust that this was a country that we knew and, of course, we would talk to all concerned. I don't think people held that against us. I think what they held against us was different, it was the way we had handled the run-up, particularly on the Sunni side, the way we had allowed the Iraqi army to be dissolved and the way we had set up the CPA and the way we had set up the new government."On the lack of troops in the immediate aftermath of invasion"I would agree with CDS [chief of defence staff] that there should have been more troops on the ground to ensure that basic level of security in the early stages. Once you had lost that, then you were really looking at a counterinsurgency strategy."Iraq war inquiryIraqUnited StatesForeign policyDefence policyMark Tranguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Iranian Nuclear Scientist Killed A remote-controlled bomb killed a Tehran University physics professor, in what Iranian authorities called an assassination backed by Western powers, including the U.S. and Israel. online.wsj.com |
Google investigates China staff Search giant probes whether its employees may have helped hackers in 'sophisticated' breachGoogle is investigating whether one or more of its employees in China helped launch the cyber attack against it last month, according to reports.It is thought the line of inquiry is a routine part of its investigation into the attack, which Google says was sophisticated, originated in China and targeted intellectual property and the email accounts of human rights activists.According to Reuters news agency, citing two unidentified sources, the attack, which targeted people with access to specific parts of Google networks, might have been helped by employees in the company's offices in China. It has several hundred staff on the mainland."We're not commenting on rumour and speculation. This is an ongoing investigation and we simply cannot comment on the details," a Google spokeswoman said.Security analysts told Reuters the malicious software or malware used in the attack was a modification of a trojan called Hydraq. A trojan is a hidden program allowing unauthorised access to a computer. The analysts said the sophistication in the attack was in knowing whom to attack, not the malware itself.Chinese media have said that some Google China employees were denied access to internal networks following the statement, with others put on leave or transferred to different offices. Google said it would not comment on its business operations.The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said in a statement today that Gmail accounts used by journalists in at least two bureaux in Beijing had been hijacked and their emails forwarded to unknown email addresses. Last week several well-known Chinese advocates of human rights complained of the same problem.A spokeswoman for Google said at the weekend that it was "business as usual" after rumours that the US firm had decided to shut down Google.cn.The row over internet censorship intensified at the weekend when Yahoo's Chinese partner, Alibaba, called Yahoo "reckless" for supporting Google in its standoff with Beijing.In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, a Yahoo spokeswoman said the firm stood "aligned" against the "deeply disturbing" attacks and violation of user privacy."Alibaba Group has communicated to Yahoo that Yahoo's statement that it is 'aligned' with the position Google took last week was reckless given the lack of facts in evidence," said John Spelich, an Alibaba spokesman. "Alibaba doesn't share this view."Yahoo owns about 40% of the Alibaba Group, which runs China's biggest online retailer, Taobao, and its largest e-commerce site, alibaba.com. Yahoo sold its stake in the Alibaba site late last year, but its stake in the group as a whole, acquired when it closed its own offices in China some years ago, remains a valuable asset.A Yahoo spokeswoman said: "Yahoo condemns all cyber attacks regardless of origin or purpose. We are committed to protecting user security and privacy and we take appropriate action in the event of any kind of breach."Google announced last Tuesday that it was no longer willing to censor search results on its Chinese service, citing the cyber attack as well as growing controls on the internet. But spokesmen say it has not yet stopped doing so and will continue talking to the Chinese government about whether it is possible to operate an uncensored service.Chinese authorities have tried to play down the disagreement, with the ministry of commerce saying there are many ways to resolve the dispute. But officials have stressed that all foreign companies must abide by Chinese laws. It is hard to see how the two sides could reach agreement.Figures released this week showed the number of China's internet users leapt almost 30% in 2009, to 384 million.GoogleChinaCensorshipInternetYahooDigital mediaTania Braniganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Beirut jet bodies pulled from sea The bodies of 24 passengers from an Ethiopian jet crash are pulled from the sea off Beirut, as hopes of finding survivors fade. news.bbc.co.uk |