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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (213068)	12/10/2004 2:09:13 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575565

What a freaking mess we have created: U.S. Officials Sound Alarm Over Iraq Fuel Crisis 1 hour, 1 minute ago Top Stories - Reuters By Khaled Yacoub Oweis BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. officials in Baghdad fear that a fuel crisis, which has left Iraqi homes cold and dark and drivers waiting days for petrol, may inflame unrest before the election. "If the current situation does not improve quickly, public confidence in the government may deteriorate significantly," a diplomat wrote this week in a note circulated among the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq (news - web sites) and obtained by Reuters. Blaming sabotage, banditry and guerrilla attacks on convoys, the note urged "extraordinary efforts" to ease shortages in Baghdad and elsewhere that have sent fuel prices soaring. In another setback for U.S. efforts to win the confidence of local people, an American sergeant was convicted of murdering an injured young Iraqi in what troops had described as a "mercy killing"; many Iraqis complain other killings go unpunished. The incident, during a Shi'ite uprising in August in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, happened after U.S. troops opened fire on a suspected militants. Local people said afterwards that they were simply overnight garbage collectors. Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne, 30, pleaded guilty to murder at his Baghdad court martial and was expected to be sentenced later in the day. Witnesses said he shot a wounded 16-year-old at close range on Aug. 18. Six other Iraqis were also killed. For Iraqis, who are to vote for a national assembly on Jan. 30, shortages of electricity and fuel are, aside from insecurity in much of the country, prime complaints since the war. With Iraq in the grip of winter, when temperatures drop close to freezing during 12 hours of darkness, electricity seems in shorter supply even than a few months ago, despite constant U.S. efforts to repair war and sabotage damage. Typically many households have two hours of power before a four-hour blackout. EXPENSIVE PROBLEMS The latest energy problems come as sources in Congress said the U.S. government, facing mounting violence and demands from troops for better equipment, is assembling a funding package for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites) that could outstrip earlier estimates, by as much as $75 billion to $100 billion. Iraq has oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia but wars and sanctions have so crippled its refineries that it relies heavily on imports along guerrilla- and bandit-prone highways as well as pumping fuel along vulnerable pipelines. On Friday, the North Oil Company said it was halting output at its refinery in Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of the capital, because of sabotage. An explosion also hit a pipeline near Baquba, northwest of Baghdad. Baiji and Baquba are both areas populated by Iraq's once dominant Sunni Arab minority, where loyalties to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) were once strong and where the insurgency against the occupation and pro-U.S. Iraqis is in full swing. U.S. and Iraqi officials fear violence could increase as the election nears. The cost of paraffin for heating has risen fivefold in the capital and bottled cooking gas tenfold, causing serious hardship for the many Iraqis without jobs or regular income. Lines several km (miles) long snake from the city's petrol stations where drivers can fill up for a subsidized 3 U.S. cents a liter. The choice is to pay 20 times as much to profiteers. Anger has boiled over, fights and shooting have broken out. The note circulated among coalition officials said frequent sabotage of supply pipelines to Baghdad's Dora refinery and attacks on and intimidation of tanker drivers are key problems. "Extraordinary efforts should continue until a robust supply of products and an effective distribution system are re-established," the official wrote. UNEASY RELATIONSHIP Though many Iraqis welcomed the overthrow of Saddam, public sentiment toward U.S. forces is also colored by revelations of their abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and other accounts of maltreatment -- including this week's report of special forces troops using Taser stun guns on prisoners. U.S. soldiers can be quick to open fire, operating as they do under constant threat of attack. The consequences of errors and crossfire can be fatal for innocent civilians. Witnesses to the incident in Sadr City said troops from Staff Sergeant Horne's unit opened fire with heavy machineguns and rifles on the garbage trucks, setting at least one alight. Local people said none of the occupants was armed, however. Accounts of unarmed Iraqis being killed by U.S. forces are legion, but the numbers involved is the source of great dispute. U.S. officials dismissed a recent medical research report which suggested tens of thousands may have died in U.S. military action since Saddam was overthrown 20 months ago. One research group, iraqbodycount.org, which uses media sources, puts Iraqi civilian deaths since the U.S. invasion at about 15,000.