Saboteurs blamed for Iraq disruption
Saboteurs brought a weekend of disruption to Iraq following attacks on a key oil pipeline in the north of the country and a water pipe in central Baghdad.

Fire engulfed a section of the newly-reopened pipeline from Kirkuk, forcing it to close again for repairs that officials warn could take weeks.

Meanwhile, around 300,000 people in Baghdad were deprived of water after an attack breached an important water pipeline, flooding many streets in the city.

US governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, has warned that continuing sabotage attacks on Iraq's infrastructure will hit the country's economic recovery.
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Sabotage threatens Iraq's economy

Sabotage left two fires burning out of control on the main pipeline exporting Iraqi oil to Turkey yesterday and the main pipe supplying water to Baghdad was bombed, flooding a motorway and leaving the city of five million without water. And, last night, a Reuters cameraman was shot dead while filming outside Iraq's main prison, which had earlier come under mortar attack.

The American-led occupation is going badly wrong before our eyes. Already US soldiers are dying daily in attacks and there is anarchy on the streets. As of yesterday, the Americans appeared to be facing an all-out assault on another front - on their efforts to rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq.

This is the occupation that was supposed to pay for itself. All the Americans had to do was to get Iraq's vast oil reserves flowing out of the country and that would finance the occupation. The sabotage of the pipeline, which will take 10 days to repair, means at least $70m (£43m) in lost revenue.

The cost of the occupation, being almost exclusively borne by US taxpayers, is out of control. The Pentagon conservatively estimates it is costing $5bn a month. Other analysts have put it at $600bn over 10 years - bigger than the current record US federal deficit.
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Have We Forgotten Anger in the Eyes?

saw those eyes again the other day on the evening news. A group of young American soldiers, sent by their government to go house to house in a sweltering Baghdad suburb, had kicked in a door and rousted a family. The children were terrified, crying. The mother was furious, screaming. The eyes of the GIs were filled with confusion and shame at what they were being made to do by their government.

And the father, down on the ground in front of his house with a kid from Arkansas or Detroit or California standing on his neck, showed in his eyes the kind of white-hot hatred that will take a thousand years to extinguish.
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Well, we're bringing the Iraqis together.

Iraqi Clerics Unite in Rare Alliance

A popular Sunni Muslim cleric has provided grass-roots and financial support to a leading anti-American Shiite cleric, a rare example of cooperation across Iraq's sectarian divide that has alarmed U.S. officials for its potential to bolster festering resistance to the American occupation, senior U.S. and Iraqi officials say.
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US Military Downgrades Amputees As "Not Seriously Iknjured"

My son in law is in Ward 57 at Walter Reed. Lost his right leg to an RPG attack – the press is ignoring the number of injuries – especially amputees.

Except for the Washington Post article they want to forget it. When I asked at Walter Reed why in my son-in-law's attack near Kirkuk on July 9 did the Army Public Affairs officer say no one was seriously hurt – I was told it would not be good for the President. My son-in-law was then in very serious condition in a field hospital in Kirkuk flown shortly later to Germany in very serious condition. Yet the public announcement was "no one seriously injured."
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Iraq KIA figures revised upwards

Casualty figures have been updated by the military to take into account soldiers who died after being evacuated from Iraq.
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Troops in Iraq face pay cut
Pentagon says tough duty bonuses are budget-buster

The Pentagon wants to cut the pay of its 148,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, who are already contending with guerrilla-style attacks, homesickness and 120- degree-plus heat.
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