IRAQ: Senior U.S. official says the United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq meanwhile dozens are killed in bomb blasts in Baghdad

Record ID: 783237

  • Title: IRAQ: Senior U.S. official says the United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq meanwhile dozens are killed in bomb blasts in Baghdad
  • Date: 22nd October 2006
  • Summary: PEOPLE AT SITE OF ATTACK SHRAPNEL HOLES IN DOOR OF SHOP BLOOD STAINS ON THE GROUND CLOSE UP OF BLOODY SANDAL ON THE GROUND VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AND SOLDIERS AT SITE OF ATTACK
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA51AWICW3DBUYM8P20FO4JJVQU
  • Story Text: The United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq, a senior U.S. official said in an interview aired by an Arabic news channel on Sunday (October 22).
    "We tried to do our best (in Iraq) but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern affairs in the U.S. State Department, told Al Jazeera.
    Fernandez was speaking in Arabic in the interview, segments of which were broadcast by Jazeera on Sunday.
    The U.S. State Department had said earlier that a translation of the comments posted on Al Jazeera's English language Web site misquoted Fernandez.
    "What he (Fernandez) says is that it is not an accurate quote," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Asked whether he thought the United States would be judged as being arrogant, McCormack said "No".
    Al Jazeera's English language web site also quoted Fernandez as saying Washington was ready to talk with any Iraqi group except al Qaeda in Iraq to end violence.
    Al Jazeera said a spokesman for ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Baath Party had earlier said the United States was seeking a face-saving exodus from Iraq and insurgents were ready to negotiate but would not lay down their arms.
    The spokesman, Abu Mohammed, outlined a series of conditions he said would have to be met before talks with the Americans could begin, the web site said.
    The demands included the return to service of Saddam's armed forces, the scrapping of every law adopted since his removal from power, the recognition of insurgent groups as the sole representatives of the Iraqi people and a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
    The web site said Fernandez dismissed the Baath Party's conditions.
    "There is an element of the farcical in that statement ... They are very removed from reality," it quoted him as saying.
    U.S. President George W. Bush, facing public discontent with the Iraq war ahead of November 7th midterm elections, acknowledged in his weekly radio address that violence in Iraq had risen sharply.
    Bush met on Saturday with top U.S. military commanders to discuss the Iraq war and reiterated a recent message that he would make "every necessary change" in tactics to try to reduce the bloodshed.
    Meanwhile two blasts wounded several people in eastern Baghdad neighbourhood of Baghdad al-Jadida on Sunday, police said.
    They said that four people were wounded and attributed the blasts to a car bomb and a roadside bomb.
    "A car was parked outside a house, it seems that a bomb planted inside it. Minutes later another bomb exploded near the main road,' said Raad Raad, an eye witness.
    Earlier on Sunday dozens of Iraqi prisoners walked free from the U.S. military's Bucca jail in Iraq, released in a goodwill gesture to mark the Eid al-Fitr.
    Many Iraqi detainees complain they are held for long periods in U.S. military jails without charge before being released or transferred to a court.
    The United States is holding 12,000 Iraqi prisoners, most of whom are being held without charge.
    In Mahmudiya, some 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad gunmen killed a man police said was responsible for bicycle bomb and mortars attacks late on Saturday (October 21) that killed 18 and wounded 60 in a local market. The town in the Sunni insurgent "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad.
    Another loud blast occurred in central Baghdad on Sunday (October 22) and black smoke rose into the sky near the banks of the Tigris river, in the Green Zone.
    The U.S. military did not give any immediate report on the incident.
    Insurgents have repeatedly targeted the fortified Green Zone, on the banks of the Tigris, with mortars and rockets.
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