Wednesday 01 July 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama greeted the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq from that country's cities and towns. Mr. Obama says that although the development marks an "important milestone," difficult days lie ahead in Iraq. The president also noted that it is now up to Iraqi leaders to take political steps to improve the more favourable security situation. Hours after U.S. troops handed over control of Iraq's cities to its domestic security forces, a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100,
Tuesday 30 June 2009 US soldiers leave Iraq's cities
Iraq formally assumes control of security across the country, as US troops withdraw from towns and cities.
Iraqi oil for sale in TV auction
Iraq is auctioning contracts to run eight oil and gas fields live on television in its first big tender since 2003.
Wednesday 24 June 2009 Thirty-one people have been killed and 96 injured in a series of attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. In the capital, three students died when their minibus hit a roadside bomb. More than 100 Iraqis have lost their lives in the past three days. In the worst attack, 72 people died on Saturday in a truck bombing in the town of Taza Kharmatu, near the northern city of Kirkuk. On Saturday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki advised his compatriots not to lose heart if insurgents take advantage of the U.S. military withdrawal from cities to increase attacks. The American soldiers are scheduled to withdraw from cities and towns by the end of the month. Some have predicted that attacks are likely to increase as the parliamentary election in January nears.
Tuesday 23 June 2009
Police in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk continued on Sunday to sift through the rubble of a mosque where a bomb exploded the day before, killing 73 people. More than 250 people were injured. Among those killed were 35 children and 15 women. Many of the victims were pulled from rubble of brick homes that were demolished by the blast, described as the deadliest in Iraq in more than one year. Kirkuk is in an area disputed by Iraq's central government and ethnic Kurds. On Sunday, a bomb exploded inside a cafe in a Shiite district of Baghdad, killing two people and injuring 13 others.
Sunday 31 May 2009 Iraq's former trade minister has been detained in connection with a corruption scandal. Reports say Abdul Falah al-Sudany got advance word on an arrest warrant against him. He went to the Baghdad airport and boarded a flight to Dubai early Saturday. But the passenger plane turned around after half an hour and returned to Baghdad, where al-Sudany was arrested by plainclothes security officers. He's suspected of fraudulent activity in connection with Iraq's public food ration program, which is one of the world's largest. Millions of dollars meant to buy food imports were embezzled, or taken in kickbacks, by officials at the Trade Ministry and the Grain Board.
Sunday 17 May 2009 Iraq deal to revive gas pipeline
A consortium of oil companies plans to revive a project to supply gas from Iraq's Kurdish region to Europe.
America's New Air Force | 13:23
Increasingly, the U.S. military is relying on un-manned aircraft to track and destroy the enemy, sometimes controlled from bases thousands of miles away from the battlefront. Lara Logan reports.
Friday 08 May 2009 OTTAWA: CANADIAN OIL FIRM STRIKES PAYDIRT IN IRAQ
Oil exploration firm Heritage Oil Ltd. says it has discovered a major oil deposit in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region. The company says the Miran West field holds between 2.3 and 4.2 billion barrels, of which 50 to 70 per cent is recoverable. Heritage says production of 10,000 to 15,000 barrels is to start by the end of the year. The Miran West and the Miran East fields cover 330 square kilometres. The Canadian firm holds a 75-per cent stake in them. Its share price climbed 21 percent to $9.65 in morning trading in Toronto.
Thursday 07 May 2009 The government says it won't allow U.S. soldiers to remain inside cities after the June 30 deadline which both sides ratified in last year's bilateral security accord. There has been speculation that the American soldiers could remain in the northern city of Mosul, where al-Qaeda and other Sunni militants remain active. The U.S. defence department says it's up to the Iraqi government to request extensions for the troops in cities after the deadline and that the U.S. intends to abide by the security accord. All American troops are to quit Iraq by the end of 2011.
May 6, 2009 Joining Forces To Fight Terror
President Obama and the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan reaffirmed their commitment to stop the Taliban and al Qaeda. Lara Logan reports.
Monday 27 April 2009 Exceptions to Iraq Deadline Are Proposed
Talks will focus on allowing Mosul to be an exception to the June 30 deadline for the withdrawal of American combat troops.
Friday 24 April 2009 Suicide bombers killed 76 people in two separate attacks on Thursday. In central Baghdad, a bomber killed 28 people and injured 50 others as police were distributing relief supplies. The second attack occurred near the city of Muqdadiya, 80 kilometres northeast of the capital in Diyala province. The bomber killed 48 people, all but two being Iranian pilgrims who were in a crowded roadside restaurant. The two attacks came amid fears that terrorists will try to take advantage of the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from city centres in June.
American investors attempt to spur Iraq’s private sector
Out with the tanks, in with the tomatoes
IN 2005 on a dusty road in Tuz, Iraq, an American solder was killed by a roadside bomb. His fellow soldiers soon discovered that the assassin was no hardened terrorist, but an unemployed father of six who had been paid $200 to plant the explosive. Such situations are not uncommon in Iraq, where high unemployment spawned many “economic insurgents”—often unideological Iraqis in need of cash, who became easy recruits. It was, in part, in response to examples like this that a trio of former military officers created the Marshall Fund, a private-equity fund making only non-oil investments in smallish firms in Iraq. “Without thriving businesses and the jobs they create, Iraq will never be stable,” says Dan Rice, who founded the fund along with Wayne Culbreth and Andrew Eberhart. Late last year it closed on its first investment, a tomato-processing plant in the northern region of Harir.
Wednesday 08 April 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday. He told an audience of U.S. troops that it's time to transfer security of their country to the Iraqis themselves. The president told the soldiers that his government intends to stick to the planned timetable of 2011 for all American troops to be out of Iraq. Mr. Obama also met the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, discussing with him the planned troops reductions and Iraqi elections set for the end of the year. The president met as well with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, to whom he repeated the promise of withdrawal by the end of 2011.
Wednesday 01 April 2009 At least seven people, including four police officers, were killed in a suicide bomber attack in the city of Mosul on Tuesday. Mosul is where al-Qaida and other insurgent groups are making a stand as violence across the rest of Iraq begins to decline six years after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Tuesday 17 March 2009 The U.S. military shot down an Iranian drone plane that penetrated Iraqi airspace last month, but there are contradictory versions about the circumstances. The Americans say the drone was shot down 100 kilometres northeast of Baghdad after having been tracked for more than one hour. A military spokesman says that the incursion could not have been an accident. However, the Iraqi defence ministry says the drone's incursion was probably an accident. Iran hasn't commented.
Thursday 12 March 2009 A court in Baghdad has convicted the former foreign minister for the ousted Saddam Hussein régime of four counts of crimes against humanity and sentenced 72-year-old Tariq Aziz to 15 years in jail. The crimes were committed when 42 merchants were accused of guilt for a rise in food prices in 1992 and executed after a quick trial. Two of the dictator's half-brothers and, a former interior minister and former director of public security received death sentences. Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali," also got a 15-year sentence. The latter has received three death sentences in other cases.
Wednesday 11 March 2009 Police in Baghdad report that at least 33 people were killed and 46 injured when a suicide bomber ignited an explosives vest in a market in the town of Abu Ghraib, west of the capital. The bombing was directed at Sunni and Shi'ite tribal leaders who had had a reconciliation meeting. The government had called the meeting to try to reconcile local Sunni tribes and Shi'ites who fled the town two years ago. No group has claimed responsibility but the U.S. military blames "small al-Qaeda-related cells." It was the second suicide bombing in the Baghdad area in three days.
Monday 09 March 2009 The United States will pull 12-thousand troops out of Iraq by the end of September in an acceleration of the withdrawal. The announcement was made Sunday in Baghdad by Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh. In addition, he said, 4-thousand British troops will withdraw in July, 2009, according to an agreement between the United Kingdom and Iraq.
Saturday 28 February 2009 Broad support for Obama Iraq plan
US Republicans broadly welcome President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw most troops from Iraq by the middle of 2010.
Friday 27 February 2009 Obama to reveal Iraq pullout plan
President Barack Obama is expected to announce his plan to withdraw most US troops from Iraq by 2010.
Wednesday 25 February 2009 UNITED STATES
Unnamed sources in Washington have told the Associated Press news agency that the president, Mr. Obama, plans to withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq by August 2010, 19 months after his inauguration. The withdrawal was one of his chief campaign promises. The sources say 30,000 to 50,000 American troops will remain after that time, including intelligence and surveillance specialists. About 142,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Iraq, about 11,000 more than when former President George W. Bush announced a "surge" of reinforcements in January 2007. The number of combat brigades has fallen from 20 to 14, although numbers of logistical and support troops has grown
Monday 09 February 2009 A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people on Thursday in the town in Khanaqin on the border with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The attack was one of the worst in Iraq in several weeks. The area has seen clashes between Iraqi government and Kurdish forces. Violence across the country has eased in the past year. Provincial elections held last weekend were the most peaceful in the country since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003.
Thursday 05 February 2009 Electoral officials are examining complaints of vote fraud in Anbar province where Sunni Arab tribal leaders are disputing last weekend's provincial election results. There has been tension in Anbar province between Sunni Arab tribes, who participated in the elections for the first time, and established parties that have run the province for years. Preliminary results from last weekend's vote are not expected until Thursday. Final results will not be released until the end of the month when electoral officials have finished investigating any complaints. The provincial election was considered the most peaceful in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sunday 01 February 2009 Obama praises peaceful Iraq polls
US President Barack Obama says a largely peaceful Iraq vote for new provincial councils is "an important step forward".
Friday 30 January 2009 A large bronze shoe sculpture has been erected in tribute to the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former US president George W. Bush last year. The sculpture stands two metres high and sits atop a white pedestal in Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. A poem praising Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi has also been written on a board, and stands at the foot of the monument. Mr. Zaidi has been held in jail in Baghdad since the incident, facing charges of assaulting a visiting head of state.
Saturday 10 January 2009 At least five Iraqi soldiers were killed by roadside explosions while on patrol in a village in Diyala province. Diyala has become one of Iraq's most violent provinces as militants from various groups, including al-Qaeda, are settling there after being forced out of other regions by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Wednesday 07 January 2009 The violence continues in Iraq. Police said Tuesday gunmen killed a member of President Jalal Talabani's political party in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Kirkuk. Police said the official killed was Subhi Hassan, a member of Mr. Talabani's Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Mr. Hassan's bodyguard was also killed in the attack. Elsewhere, four police commandos were killed and two wounded by a roadside bomb on Monday night in the Doura district of southern Baghdad. In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber wounded five policemen and three civilians, striking their patrol. A roadside bomb wounded two policemen in the town of Tuz Khurmato, north of Baghdad, on Tuesday. In the town of Sekhra on Monday, gunmen in a speeding car opened fire and shot dead an off-duty Iraqi soldier. In Kirkuk, gunmen in a speeding car opened fire and seriously wounded an off-duty policeman, and police said the body of a man was found in Baghdad on Monday.
Tuesday 06 January 2009 The United States opened its new embassy building in Baghdad Monday. Analysts say it is a step symbolising the US's transition from occupying power to an ally of a sovereign Iraqi government. In recent weeks American diplomats have gradually moved into the $600-million compound, the world's largest US embassy building. Diplomats had been doing business in a palace they had inhabited since the US toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003. The opening of the new embassy is in line with a change of power that occurred on New Year's Day when US forces in Iraq officially came under an Iraqi mandate. Elsewhere, at least 23 people were killed Monday in a suicide bombing in a town south of Baghdad. About 110 people were also injured in the attack at a gathering of Sunni Muslim tribal leaders in Yusufiya, 20 kilometres from Baghdad. In Baghdad, two people were killed and dozens more wounded by multiple roadside bombings and one car bomb.
2008
Monday 29 December 2008 Iraqi forces Sunday recaptured two al-Qaida prisoners who broke out of a police jail in Ramadi on Friday. The third, known to Iraqi forces as "Imad the killer" was shot dead by an Iraqi police sniper Saturday. The three local al-Qaida prisoners escaped from their cells in the Forsan police station. That led to a firefight that killed 13 militants and policemen.
Sunday 28 December 2008 A car bomb exploded on Saturday at a Baghdad bus station, killing 18 people and wounding 31 others. Police said women and children were among the victims. The explosion happened in the Shi'ite district of Kadhimiya in northwestern Baghdad. On Saturday local residents traditionally gather at a major Shi'ite mosque in the district. Meanwhile, a local chief of al-Qaeda who broke out of jail was killed Saturday by Iraqi police in Ramadi. The man shot by Iraqi forces was Imad Ahmed Farhan, nicknamed "Imad the Killer" because police say the Qaeda operative had confessed to murdering at least 100 people and setting over 100 roadside bombs. Two prisoners who escaped with him remained on the run.
Thursday, 25 December 2008 Harold Pinter on the Iraq war
Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, who has died at the age of 78, strongly opposed the war in Iraq, calling it ''a bandit act.''
In a speech he gave in Sweden, he said President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried as war criminals for instigating the invasion.
NEWSMEAT BAGHDAD, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Police tracked down and killed a suspected Iraqi militant on Saturday, the night after the man believed to have links to al Qaeda disappeared in a bold jailbreak in western Iraq, a senior police official said.
Wednesday 24 December 2008 Iraq's parliament has voted to allow the presence of foreign troops, other than Americans, after Dec. 31. The move will allow about 4,100 British forces and other non-U.S. foreign troops to remain beyond the expiration of a United Nations' mandate at the end of the year. The U.S. has already signed a deal with Baghdad for its army to remain in the country until the end of 2011. Washington supplies 95 percent of foreign troops in Iraq.
Monday 22 December 2008 For a second time, Iraq's parliament has rejected a draft law that would allow troops from Britain, Australia and several other countries to remain in Iraq. The draft law was drawn up by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It proposed to allow foreign troops other than Americans to stay until the end of July. It was already rejected earlier in the week. The U.S.-Iraqi security pact sets the date for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq at the end of 2011.
54:25
How the world sees the US.
how duplicitous the Pakistani establishment and military, ISI, have been in supporting anti- American forces in Afghanistan (rev $.7b) [98% of world poppies = corruption, Iraq (rev $70b)
(24:02) Guantanamo what to do with the people where no country will accept them
(28:53)
On Iran I believe Secretary Gates understands the situation well. He understands that there are no moderate Iranian leaders and also understands that the Iranian acquistion of nuclear arms is a global game - changer. [oil down from $145 to $33 perB)
Robert Gates on lessons pf the 1975 Helsinki accords
(40:21)On Russia and China(48:24) Secretary Gates speaks like a good diplomat, attributing perhaps a bit more good- will and action to them than they deserve. He could have had he wished drawn up a long list of grievances against both.
Robert Gates on missed opportunities with Russia Robert Gates on limitations of military power
(49:00)U.S. outlook, we will get out of this econ problem War is Hell 54:25end
Monday 15 December 2008 U.S. President George W. Bush had to dodge two shoes thrown at him during a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday. Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television in Cairo, Egypt, threw the shoes. Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was standing next to Mr. Bush. Neither leader was hit. Throwing shoes is considered an insult in the Islamic world. The journalist was dragged screaming from the room. Mr. Bush arrived in Iraq on his last visit to the country before he steps down from office next month. He celebrated a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement that calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Friday 05 December 2008 Iraq's presidential council Thursday approved a security pact that sets out a three-year time-frame for American troops to leave. Iraq's parliament signed off on the pact last week following months of difficult bargaining between US and Iraqi negotiators. In Washington, the White House welcomed Thursday's decision. The announcement came as violence continued. Two suicide bombers in explosives-laden trucks took aim at police stations in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 100. A suicide car bomber also killed two US soldiers and wounded nine Iraqi civilians near a checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul.
Friday 28 November 2008 Iraq's parliament has passed an agreement that would see U.S. troops leave the country by the end of 2011. The accord will see the pullout of some 150,000 American forces. The agreement also includes a long-term strategic framework that defines relations between the countries for years in the fields of economy, culture, science, technology, health and trade.
Tuesday 25 November 2008 Thousands of Shiite followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad Friday to protest against a security agreement that would allow US troops to remain in the country until 2011. The agreement, which was approved by the Iraqi cabinet on Sunday after nearly a year of negotiations, will require all foreign forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by the end of June 2009 and from the country entirely by the end of 2011. Mr. Sadr's followers oppose signing any agreement that would legitimise what they call the US occupation. The agreement is expected to be passed by the Iraqi parliament in a vote next week.
Wednesday 19 November 2008 Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has attacked critics of the tentative security pact with the U.S. which will allow American troops to stay in Iraq until 2011. The pact must yet be approved by the country's Parliament. The prime minister claims that critics attack it because they want the Americans to stay for the sole reason of agitating against them. The main political groups in Mr. al-Maliki's governing coalition have come out in favour of the deal, while followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr oppose it, some Sunni Arab groups expressing reservations. The prime minister said that his cabinet also had had reservations but ended up viewing the accord as the best way to return to Iraqi sovereignty.
Tuesday 18 November 2008 The U.S. government has welcomed news that Iraq has approved a deal to allow U.S. forces to remain in the country until 2011. The agreement ended nearly a year of intense negotiations within the Iraqi cabinet. Parliament is expected to approve the deal before the end of the month. There are over 150,000 American soldiers deployed in over 400 bases across Iraq. Their United Nations mandate to remain in the country expires at the end of December.
A suicide car bomb killed 15 people, including seven policemen, in Diyala province on Sunday. Twenty people were injured. The bomber targeted a police checkpoint in the town of Jalawla, north of Baghdad. Elsewhere, a roadside bomb killed three people in northern Baghdad's Shaab district. Seven people, including five patrolmen were injured.
Wednesday 12 November 2008 Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has told his Syrian counterpart Walid Mouallem that his country won't be a base to launch attacks against its neighbours. He was responding to the Syrian government's criticism of the Iraqi government's justification of an American military raid on Oct. 26 against a target in Syria. U.S. soldiers attacked a building eight kilometres from the Iraq-Syria border. The Syrian government said eight civilians were killed. The U.S. military claimed to have killed a top al-Qaeda in Iraq organizer who had been arranging the passage of foreign fighters into Iraq.
Sunday 09 November 2008 The U.S. government says it considers negotiations on a draft text of a security accord with Iraq complete and that it's now up to the Iraqi government to complete the process of legislative approval. The Iraqi government had proposed amendments to the text which had been laboriously negotiated. An unnamed official told the Associated Press that some changes had been accepted and others rejected. The Iraqi government has said that acceptance of the amendments is essential if an agreement is to be reached before the UN mandate for the U.S.-led coalition expires on Dec. 31. The original draft called for the departure of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities by June 30, with the last American troops departing the country by 2012.
Friday 31 October 2008 The Iraqi government wants major revisions of the tentative agreement it spent long months negotiating with the U.S. over the terms of the final withdrawal of U.S. troops to eliminate any chance the American military would remain beyond 2001. The existing draft says the troops will leave by Dec. 31, 2011, unless both governments agreed to an extension for training and supporting Iraqi supporting forces. But an associate of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says he wants those conditions eliminated from the text, which also gives Iraqi court limited jurisdiction over U.S. troops if they're accused of crimes committed off post and off duty. The source says the government wants the addition of a provision for joint committees to determine whether soldiers accused of crimes were on authorized missions. Washington is hoping to achieve a security accord with Iraq before President George W. Bush leaves office and before the U.S.-led coalition's UN mandate expires on Dec. 31.
Thursday 23 October 2008 Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari says the government will demand amendments to the security pact which it concluded with the U.S. last week, but says that the changes don't involve the draft agreement's basic principles but rather "wording and descriptions." The cabinet demanded the changes despite having agreed last week to a "final draft" after months of negotiations with the Americans. U.S. troops are authorized to remain in the country under a UN resolution only until the end of the year. The draft agreement permits their presence until 2011. The accord would also allow Iraqi courts to try American soldiers for serious crimes committed while off duty.
Sunday 19 October 2008 CBC Iraq and Gordon Brown Video Afghanistan, was known for his ability to recruit and inspire foreign fighters and also to kill those of them who wanted to return home rather than carry out suicide bombings and other attacks.
Tuesday 16 September 2008 U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates paid an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Monday to witness the handover of command of U.S. troops in Iraq from Gen. David Petraeus to Gen. Raymond Odierno. Mr. Gates congratulated both on the promotion and implementation of the troop increase that eased sectarian and terrorist violence, paying tribute as well to the role played by Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The secretary said Gen. Petraeus and Mr. Crocker had made Iraq "a more hopeful place." Mr. Gates also met with Prime Minister Nur al-Maliki. There was no indication afterwards that the U.S. and Iraq are closer to a security treaty that would specify the numbers of U.S. troops who will continue to be deployed in Iraq.
3/19/2008 Charlie Rose a Continued discussion about the war in Iraq
Monday 25 August 2008 A gunman has shot and injured a leading Shiite cleric in Iraq. Haider al-Saymari is an outspoken critic of sectarian militias. He died on Saturday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. A gunman opened fire on a van that was also carrying his wife, mother and sister. They were not harmed. The victim is a follower of Iraq's top Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He's known as a critic of armed groups in Basra, particularly the Mahdi Army militia of al-Sistani's rival, anti-American Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Elsewhere in Iraq on Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at a dinner feast in western Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district. One unconfirmed report said that as many as 21 people were killed.
Friday 22 August 2008 Deal on US troops in Iraq 'close'
Iraq says a deal on the future of US forces is "very close" after talks with the US secretary of state in Baghdad.
Iraqi oil
Iraq's oil is starting to flow a bit more freely ... more
March 1, 2007
The Lies that Led to War
Since the US-led invasion four years ago, the fifth estate has covered Iraq and the war on terror from virtually every angle--the military, media, intellligence, politics--revealing aspects of the story that you didn't find anywhere else. Now, as the White House warns about the latest threat in the region, this time from Iran, we go back to examine the deception, suspect intelligence, even lies that convinced the world of the rightness of targeting Saddam Hussein.
Tuesday 22 July 2008 Obama meets Iraqi PM in Baghdad
US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama meets the Iraqi prime minister on his first visit to Baghdad.
Wednesday 16 July 2008 Obama vows to end US role in Iraq
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama says he will end the Iraq war, saying it distracts the US from other threats
Wednesday 09 July 2008 For the second straight day on Tuesday, the Iraqi government has said that any new security agreement with the U.S. must be based on a timetable for the eventual withdrawal of the Americans. The Iraqi government's national security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, says the government won't accept any deal not linked to withdrawal dates. Prime Minister Nur al-Maliki on Monday for the first time said the same thing. U.S. President George W. Bush has said he opposes a timetable for withdrawal. The Iraqi proposal for a security agreement stipulates that when Iraqi forces have assumed responsibility for security in all 18 provinces, U.S.-led forces would withdraw from all cities. Thenceforth, the country's security situation would be reviewed every six months. The U.S. has already handed over security in nine of the 18 provinces.
Tuesday Jul 8, 2008 Iraq looks toward sovereignty
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is demanding that the U.S. set a timetable for withdrawal of troops...
Tuesday 01 July 2008 IRAQ
The government has opened up six immense oilfields to foreign firms. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani says that the six oilfields are "the backbone of Iraqi oil production," and that with its vast reserves his country ought to be the second- or third-biggest oil producer. Opponents of the 2003 war that toppled the government of the late dictator Saddam Hussein who have claimed that the conflict was aimed at allowing Western oil companies access to Iraq's oil wealth are certain to have been angered by the development. Iraq's oil-producing neighbours Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE keep production under the control of state energy firms.
Monday 23 June 2008 At least 18 people were killed and 38 were wounded when a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a court building north of Baghdad on Sunday. The attack took place in Baquba, capital of Diyala province. Five police officers were among those killed. A number of female suicide bombers have carried out attacks in Iraq in the past six months, mainly in Diyala.
Monday 23 June 2008 By JASON CAMPBELL, MICHAEL O’HANLON and AMY UNIKEWICZ The State of Iraq: An Update IRAQ remains a violent country plagued by high unemployment, raw wounds from sectarian conflict, extremist militias aided by Iran, more than four million people still displaced by violence, and very limited government capacity to meet the country’s core needs.
Baghdad Bureau Q&A Women in the Iraqi capital answer questions from readers on politics, raising children and women's rights.
Monday 02 June 2008 French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday the security situation in Iraq was improving. Speaking in Baghdad, Mr. Kouchner reaffirmed France's willingness to help rebuild the country. Meanwhile, Australia ended its combat operations in Iraq. The Australian flag was lowered in a ceremony Sunday with the 550 troops at a base in the southern Iraq city of Talil. The Australians are expected to be replaced by American soldiers. The move fulfils a campaign promise of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was elected last November, to bring Australian troops home by the middle of this year.
Friday 23 May 2008 US spending in Iraq ignored rules
An audit of $8bn paid to contractors in Iraq finds that almost none of the payments complied with US federal laws. In one instance, $11m was paid to a US company without any record of what goods or services were provided, the US defence department audit said.
Wednesday 21 May 2008 Ten-thousand Iraqi troops deployed on Tuesday in Baghdad's Sadr City Shi'ite slum, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The force took to the streets in tanks and other armoured vehicles and on foot. The militiamen offered no resistance, even handing out Qurans to the soldiers. Last week, the two sides concluded a truce by which the militiamen promise not to attack residential areas or the central Green Zone where the government is based. In return, the army has promised not to try to seize the fighters' light weapons or to ask the Americans for reinforcements. The operation is the latest by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to impose government authority in areas controlled by armed groups.
Saturday May 3, 2008 It was a bad year for press freedom in the world 1. Iraq. This became the most dangerous country in the world after the U.S. invasion of 2003. "Journalists have generally not died in combat, however. Most are targeted for professional reasons and murdered." It has 79 unsolved cases.
Sunday 20 April 2008 The Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday threatened an open war with Iraq's government. A statement from the populist leader said that war could be avoided only if the government chooses what he called the path of peace. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has launched a crackdown on Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and threatened to bar his mass movement from political life. Sadr's movement accuses other Shi'ite parties of infiltrating their militias into Iraqi security forces.
Friday Apr 18, 2008 It's time for Canada to set an example to the world - again
Canada avoided the Iraq War, but that doesn't mean we should avoid doing our part to help that conflict's 2 million refugees. ...Settling refugees costs money. Joe Clark's post-Vietnam innovation was to share the financial burden with Canadian citizens, who fundraised with aplomb. A bold matching scheme hatched in 1979 saw Clark's government sponsor one refugee for every refugee sponsored by the private sector.
General David Petraeus, commander of the American army in Iraq, is not just the current holder of one of the world’s most difficult jobs. As the deferred prophet of the “surge,” he is the man hailed by the restless and vocal junior officers who first asked if then-Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s high-tech model for a quick invasion and withdrawal could actually work, and who complained bitterly of lacking the equipment and reinforcements needed to keep their soldiers safe and do the job they were sent to do. Petraeus thus charts a delicate course, between a government that is desperate to save face until it leaves office, a military that is cracking under the strain, and an electorate that recognizes him as the public face of the American occupation. Whether or not he intends it or enjoys it, he is also the hope of the Republican Party, though only a few dare to explicitly speculate about a future run for public office. Most understand that Petraeus’s implicit promise, as the man most closely identified with the occupation, makes him the determinant of whether presidential hopeful John McCain can go into the general election looking like a confident veteran ready to lead the US to a geo-strategic rebound, or looking like a fool for having trusted US President George W. Bush in the first place.
Petraeus appeared yesterday before the Senate Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees—which include Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama—to defend the “surge” as a successful approach that has reduced violence and forestalled civil war. The Star sees the appearance as a damp squib, one that says little about the long-term viability of the occupation but much about how senators want to be seen in relation to it. The Post frames his testimony as a screen, on which the various candidates project their campaign stances but which has little to communicate on its own. The Citizen, running an analysis from the Times of London, views the appearance similarly, as a part of the election campaign that has nothing to do with the tough decisions that will be forced on the incoming president. John Ibbitson (subscription required) of the Globe already knows what his or her options will be: A “continuing gradual troop withdrawal based on success, or a continuing gradual withdrawal based on failure.” America finds itself in a strangely eventful kind of limbo right now, with open fighting between Shiite factions, the “Sunni Awakening” falling apart, Iran mucking about and the Baghdad government beset with deadlock and impotence. That there are no real decisions to be made among this disorder, at least not until a new president is inaugurated in nine months, is a testament to the Bush administration’s tenacity and to the inability of America to understand that stubbornness as a disaster in itself.
The U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, says he will stop withdrawals of American troops in July for 45 days while he assesses the situation. Gen. Petraeus told the U.S. Senate Armed Forces Committee that his decision comes because of the fragile security situation resulting from a surge in violence. Eleven U.S. soldiers have died in the past two days. The general told the senators that although security is better in some parts of Iraq, the situation remains unsatisfactory. Gen. Petraeus also noted that the operation by the Iraqi military against Shi'ite militia in the southern city of Basra had not been adequately prepared. President George W. Bush had called the campaign against the Mahdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr a "defining moment" for Iraq. Committee member and Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton responded that the U.S. ought to start leaving Iraq to focus on problems elsewhere. The probable Republican Party candidate, Sen. John McCain, on the other hand, said he saw a real prospect of success and warned that defeat could force U.S. troops to return for a broader war.
Wednesday 02 April 2008 Britain has halted its plan to withdraw 1,500 of its 4,000 troops based in southern Iraq this spring. Defence Secretary Des Browne told the House of Commons that it is prudent to adopt a watchful attitude in the wake of last week's fighting in Basra between the Iraqi military and Shi'ite militiamen of the Mahdi Army. The fighting started in Basra and spread to other southern cities and Shi'ite districts in Baghdad. The Iraqi government report a 50 per cent rise in the number of people killed in March from the previous month, many of the deaths in the fighting between the army and the Shi'ite fighters. In one week, the top U.S. commander in Iraq will appear before Congress to offer his recommendation on how fast American troops can be withdrawn.
AN UNHAPPY ANNIVERSARY by Josh Ginsberg March 20, 2008
It is the grimmest of anniversary celebrations: Five years ago
today, US bombs turned the skies over Baghdad black, heralding a long war
that turned out to be far costlier
and deadlier
than its planners anticipated. Despite the long struggle, it is unclear
that the world is a better place for all the violence, and those that have
been covering the war from the start still report that there is no end in
sight. Still, the US
president is sticking to his guns, bombs, and tanks, saying to a
friendly military audience yesterday that stopping the fight now
would only embolden terrorists in Iraq. Of course, as commentators have
pointed out ad nauseam, terrorists in Iraq only got wind in their sails once
US bombs started falling, a point which the Democratic candidates for
president didn’t
fail to pick up on in their renewed calls for a troop pullout. The
Post, historically a supporter of the war, brings in Christopher Hitchens
on the front page (but not online) to make the case for optimism about the
future. He argues that the war was less the result of worries about
non-existent weapons of mass destruction than the necessary culmination of
a decades-long struggle with Iraq. An editorial
in the paper also tells us to look on the bright side, citing the cheery
statistic that “Iraqi civilian deaths are down … from nearly
4,000 a month to under 500.” Those numbers still make the country
one of the most dangerous in the world.
While it has no troops in Iraq, Canada announced that it will accept more
Iraqi refugees, doubling the number from last year to a total of 2,000.
But this is only a tiny fraction of the two million who have been forced to
flee their homes due to fighting, and still cannot return out of fear for
their lives. Refugee advocates are not celebrating the move, noting that
the increase in Iraqi refugees will come at the expense of refugees from
other countries. In a brief, the
Post trumpets the move by Citizenship and Immigration, without giving
voice to critics. An editorial
in La Presse doesn’t mention the immigrants, but takes aim at the war
that caused them to flee, comparing it to the Civil War and Vietnam on the
disaster scale. Critics largely acknowledge that Iraq is better off
without Saddam Hussein, but there is no consensus on whether optimism for
the future of the country is warranted. The Post stands out as making a
Herculean effort to convince us that things are looking up, dedicating
almost a dozen stories to the subject. But they note that, while Saddam is
reviled in most of the country, the former dictator is still idolized
in his hometown. Mediascout wonders if the same will be true for his
rival George W. Bush after his reign also comes to an end.
Wednesday 19 March 2008 Notes From the Field, Five Years Later
Reporters and photographers who covered the Iraq war look back at years of conflict.
Estimates of Iraq War Cost Were Not Close to Ballpark
Five years into the conflict, experts estimate the cost of the war to be anywhere from $600 billion to $4 trillion – tens of times more than originally projected.
FP looks back at the war’s most memorable moments.
Five years ago this week, the United States began to bomb Baghdad. Some of the war’s greatest costs are well known. But, on this anniversary, FP looks back at some of the war’s hidden costs — and what it has meant for the men and women caught in the crossfire.
After five years of fighting, what is the state of the U.S. military? What toll has the war taken on them? Foreign Policy and the Center for a New American Security surveyed more than 3,400 retired and active military officers to find out from the men and women who know best.
Iraq is virtually littered with bombs. Today, there are more than a million tons of live munitions lying under foot. When it comes time to clean up the country, these are the men who are called to carry away the most dangerous debris.
Before the invasion, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt argued that, as cruel and calculating as Saddam Hussein was, he could have been deterred.
Saturday 15 March 2008 Eyeing the wages of war Two economists take an unflinching look at the costs of invading Iraq
SUPPOSE that, five years ago, George Bush had asked every American household to stump up $25,000 to pay for an imminent war on Iraq. How would they have responded? ...How do the authors arrive at the $3 trillion figure of the title, and the still bigger
nyt To mark this week’s fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the Op-Ed page asked nine experts on military and foreign affairs to reflect on their attitudes in the spring of 2003 and to comment on the one aspect of the war that most surprised them or that they wished they had considered in the prewar debate.
To find reference information about the words used in this article, double-click on any word, phrase or name. A new window will open with a dictionary definition or encyclopedia entry.
Sunday 16 March 2008 Iraq Insurgency Runs on Stolen Oil Profits
The sea of oil under Iraq is supposed to rebuild the nation, but fuel shipments often get diverted to the black market.
Wednesday 27 February 2008 The Iraqi government has issued a statement condemning the Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq to suppress ethnic Kurdish insurgents fighting for autonomy in eastern Turkey. The Iraqi cabinet says the incursion is not conducive to good relations between the two neighbours. A Turkish envoy is due in Baghdad on Wednesday to discuss the situation with President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says the Kurdish PKK Party has challenged his country's peace and security.
Sunday 17 February 2008 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, will send a representative to Baghdad in an effort to help millions of emigrant Iraqis to return home. Mr. Guterres is also planning to increase his staff in the capital from two to five. The U.N. office was moved out of Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, after two major attacks in 2003. The U.N.'s gesture aims to show greater commitment toward solving Iraq's emigration crisis as well as more confidence in the country's growing security. Iraq's government on Saturday said that most of Baghdad has been secured thanks to a surge in U.S. forces in the city.
Tuesday 05 February 2008 The Iranian authorities displayed on television on Monday a new research rocket and the country's first major space centre. The launch order for the rocket was given by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran has long announced its intention to develop a space program to put satellites into space to monitor natural disasters and to improve communications. The same technology can be used to deliver warheads. The country's most powerful existing ballistic missile is thought to have a range of at least 1,300 kilometres, putting much of the Middle East within range, including Israel. The U.S. state department has reacted by calling the rocket launch "just another troubling development."
Saturday Feb 2, 2008 Two Bombings Wreak Carnage in Iraqi Capital
By STEPHEN FARRELL and MUDHAFER AL-HUSAINI
Two women strapped with explosives killed dozens of people in the deadliest day in Baghdad in months.
Friday 01 February 2008 US army suicides set for new high
Suicides among US soldiers are heading for a record high, army data released on Thursday shows.
Friday 01 February 2008 Dozens Killed in Worst Baghdad Attack in Months
By STEPHEN FARRELL and MUDHAFER AL-HUSAINI
BAGHDAD — Two female suicide bombers killed 65 people and wounded 149 at Baghdad pet markets on Friday, the twin blasts inflicting the bloodiest day on the Iraqi capital for six months.
Wednesday 30 January 2008 Iraqi police have found the remains of 19 executed men in the province of Diyala. The discovery was made near the town of Moqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad. The identity of the men is not known. The province of Diyala is one of the most dangerous in Iraq and a stronghold of the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda. In another development, at least two people were killed and about 20 wounded on Tuesady in a series of bomb and mortar attacks Baghdad.
Sunday 13 January 2008 Unfinished Debate on Iraq
Iraq will be a central challenge for whoever succeeds President Bush and has to repair the profound damage he has wrought with a war that should never have been fought.
Thursday 27 December 2007 The Iraqi cabinet Wednesday approved a draft law that will offer a general pardon to thousands of prisoners in US military and Iraqi custody. An Iraqi government spokesman said the general pardon law will define who is eligible to be freed from all prisons in Iraq, including those run by the US military. Meanwhile, Turkish warplanes attacked eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish military officials described the attacks as a pinpoint operation. The Turkish military says it has hit more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the last ten days, killing hundreds of rebels. In the northern province of Ninevah, a bomb explosion killed three children and wounded two others. Also in Nineveh, the US military said insurgents shot dead two US soldiers. Three other soldiers were wounded. The latest fatalities brought the military's overall losses since the March 2003 invasion to 3,898.
2007
nyt video Play Charles Ferguson, a filmmaker, presents a rebuttal to claims made by L. Paul Bremer III that top American officials approved the decision to disband the Iraqi army.
The Sunni Awakening has helped calm one of the most violent provinces of Iraq. But it faces an uncertain future.
nyt video
Friday 14 December 2007 #1. Surging in Iraq
January: U.S. reinforcements begin arriving in Baghdad as part of the "surge" strategy to restore some semblance of security and order to the Iraqi capital, in the hope that this would lay the groundwork for Iraq's politicians to resolve their differences. By mid-June, some 30,000 new U.S. troops are deployed in Iraq, and with violence levels cut in half by November and a number of Iraqis returning to Baghdad, the U.S. begins reducing its troop numbers. Despite the improved security, Iraq's political leaders have made little progress towards national reconciliation.
Tuesday 11 December 2007 Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki has asked the UN Security Council for a 12-month extension from Dec. 31 of the mandate of the U.S.-led military coalition, with the proviso that his government could ask for the mandate to end even before that. The president's letter to the Council says this will be the last extension, noting that the country's own armed forces are steadily improving. The number of insurgent attacks has fallen 55 per cent since the security "surge" due to the reinforcement of 30,000 U.S. troops became fully operational in June. Improvement is due in part as well to U.S.-backed neighbourhood police units organized by Sunni tribal sheiks.
Wednesday 05 December 2007 The Iraqi government has acknowledged that it could not cope with the return of large numbers of refugees who have fled Iraq's violence and war. Migration Minister Abdul-Samad Rahman says neither his ministry nor the government as a whole could handle a huge influx of refugees. However, he seems to disagree with the assessment by the U.S. military that the security situation remains too fragile to allow the return of large numbers of refugees and that such a return could rekindle sectarian hostilities between Sunni and Shi'ite. Some refugees have returned only to find their homes occupied by members of the other sect. Mr. Rahman says the government will give priority to helping refugees who want to return from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, but that those in North America or Europe should stay there until security improves.
Saturday 27 October 2007 rci An associate of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtar al-Sadr has warned that he could end the six-month ceasefire by his Mahdi Army militia declared in August at any time if Iraqi and U.S. raids against his followers continue. The U.S. military welcomed the ceasefire but has continued to operate against what it considers breakaway factions of the Mahdi Army supported by Iran. The campaign seems to have escalated in recent weeks. The military says it killed at least 49 Shi'ite extremists in a ground and air attack against the Shi'ite militia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad. After the declaration of the ceasefire, the numbers of bodies found across Iraq killed in sectarian murders dropped greatly. Dozens were often found daily but on Friday only three were reported in the capital.
Wednesday 24 October 2007 Remember Iraq
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
I continue to believe that everyone has us where they want us in Iraq: we’re holding up the floor for Iraqi politicians to do their endless tribal dance.
Thursday 27 September 2007 Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has told the General Assembly that it's not in the interest of his country's neighbours for Iraq to be weak. Mr. al-Maliki says his government is optimistic that the neighbours realize it isn't in their own interest for Iraq to be the victim of terrorist attacks but that on the contrary a strong, democratic country will be a guarantee of regional stability. The U.S. has blamed Iran for much of the violence that has convulsed Iraq, which the government in Teheran denies. The Iraqi leader also told the General Assembly that he hopes the world body will "mobilize its activities in Iraq." Meanwhile, the violence in Iraq shows no signs of abating. A series of attacks on Wednesday left 57 dead and 120 injured. In Baghdad, two car bombs killed 32 people and injured 30 in a Shi'ite neighbourhood as many residents were preparing the Ramadan evening meal.
Wednesday 26 September 2007 Maliki Gains Time, but Faces a Daunting Task
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Iraq’s unpopular prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, still appears a long way from being able to forge political reconciliation in his country BAGHDAD, Sept. 24 — Now that President Bush has extracted more time from Congress to show results in Iraq, the country’s unpopular prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, appears to have won a reprieve from American talk of pushing him aside.
Wed1332 American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and America’s ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker are appearing before Congress. Early bulletins indicate that General Petraeus, having stated that the troop “surge” is meeting military objectives and “delivered a report that mixed descriptions of slow, modest progress in pacifying Iraq with a prediction that many tough days lies ahead”. Before the end of the week the administration is due to issue a written report on Iraq’s progress towards a set of 18 military and political “benchmarks” which, if met, would signify that the country is ready to stand on its own feet.
The UN Secretary-General’s trip to meet one-on-one with African leaders to try to find an end to the crisis in Darfur gives some hope, but in our start-of-the-new-year impatience, we remain dismayed by the slow progress
Monday 17 September 2007 US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday he expects the American mission in Iraq to continue for an extended time but with a more limited focus. Mr. Gates said US forces will focus on border security, fighting terrorists and training and equipping Iraqi security forces. He did not discuss exact numbers. In Baghdad Sunday, the political movement loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr withdrew from the governing alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. And the violence continued. At least 41 people were killed or found dead on Sunday. In Washington Saturday, thousands of anti-war protesters, including many military veterans, marched from the White House to the US Capitol to voice their opposition to the war. Police said they arrested up to 200 protesters and charged them with crossing a police line.
Friday 14 September 2007 rci The most prominent tribal leader in the war against terrorists in the western province of Anbar has been killed along with two bodyguards in a roadside bombing. Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha was the leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, which was fighting alongside the Iraqi army and the U.S. military against al-Qaeda in Iraq. A senior ally of the tribal sheik says he was driving home to Ramadi when the explosion occurred. No group has claimed responsibility. A police officer in Ramadi says Abu Risha had received a group of poor people at his home earlier in the day and one of them is suspected of having planted the bomb. Also on Thursday, the U.S. military says an attack against its headquarters in Iraq near Baghdad was carried out by a 240 m rocket, a type of weapons supplied by Iran to Shi'ite militias. The military claims the rocket was fired from a district of western Baghdad which is says is infiltrated by the Mahdi Army military.
Wednesday 12 September 2007 The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker, have completed two long-anticipated days of testimony before a congressional committee about the military situation there. The general reiterated his plan to pull out the 30,000 reinforcements which President George W. Bush ordered to the country in January to stop sectarian bloodshed by summer. But Gen. Petraeus was unable to give his listeners precise timelines. Several both Republic and Democratic Party senators expressed scepticism that any progress is being achieved in stabilizing Iraq. Democratic Sen. Barak Obama, a presidential candidate, claimed that the addition of 30,000 reinforcement had resulted only to a return to the levels of intolerable violence seen in June 2006, indicating a failed policy.
Tuesday 11 September 2007 IRAQ
The top U.S. military commander in Iraq has delivered a long-awaited assessment of the situation in Iraq to the U.S. Congress. Gen. David Petraeus told his listeners that he foresees the withdrawal of 30,000 U.S. troops by summer. That's the number of reinforcements sent last winter to smother the insurgency. Gen. Petraeus says the "surge" has mostly achieved its military objectives and the violent incidents have declined in eight of the past 12 weeks. He says that the western province of Anbar has provided an example of the population turning against terrorists. The general also denied that his report has been dictated by the defence department or the White House. The congressional committee also heard from the U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker, who said that U.S. objectives in Iraq are achievable and that Iraqis are capable of living in peace. In Baghdad, meanwhile, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has told legislators that Iraqi forces aren't ready to take over security across the country from the U.S. military. However, the prime minister said that numbers of violent incidents in the capital have fallen by three-quarters since the beginning of the "surge."
ASSESSING THE 'SURGE' by Daniel Casey September 11, 2007
US General David Petraeus may be the most credible commander that
the US has yet had in Iraq. That’s not saying much, when he has to
preface his remarks before the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services
committees by intoning “I wrote this testimony myself. It has not
been cleared by nor shared with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or
the Congress,” over the shouts of furious protesters; and then heads
off to give an exclusive interview to Fox News once his testimony is done.
The
Globe and the Star both
pick up on the analogy offered by Democratic House Representative Robert
Wexler, who likened Petraeus’s appearance before the committees to
that of General William Westmoreland, who came before Congress in 1967
preaching success for US forces in Vietnam and asking for more troops to
guarantee it. In this instance, however, Petraeus was quick to reassure
the committees that success meant bringing troops home, and that the
thirty thousand extra troops sent to Iraq as part of what The
National referred to as “the so-called
‘surge’” would be able to come back by next year. All of
today’s sources act like this is an option, as if Petraeus is in a
position to—as the
Citizen puts it—“recommend a cut in US forces to
‘pre-surge levels’ by mid-July 2008,” amidst talk in
recent weeks that any more tours of duty or prolonged deployments will
break the US military for a generation.
Online, the Post runs the Citizen’s report, but in print it goes
with a vituperative screed from the UK Daily Telegraph, describing
“bitterly disappointed” Democrats who reacted with
“thinly veiled hostility” to Petraeus’s testimony,
deriding the “air of farce” generated by “forty-five
minutes of partisan speeches.” Both Petraeus and the US Ambassador
to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, were careful to mention that one of the major
reasons for the US to remain is in order to block Iran from exercising
additional influence, a point noted in La Presse (not available online).
The Globe’s John
Ibbitson opines that the measured, steadfast tone projected by both men
helps reinforce Republican assertions that the possibility of success in
Iraq still remains, leaving the Democrats to either back the White
House’s strategy, come up with one of their own, or push for
withdrawal now and risk “looking pacifist, defeatist and
untrustworthy.” That the Democrats won a convincing House majority
by running a firmly anti-war campaign, only to plummet in the polls once
they failed to act on Iraq, doesn’t seem to have registered.
Sunday 09 September 2007 Assessing the ‘Surge’: A Survey of Baghdad Neighborhoods To study the ground-level effects of the American troop buildup, reporters and video journalists for The New York Times visited Baghdad's neighborhoods, interviewing residents, Americans on patrol and Iraqi officials. To explore the videos and written reports, select a neighborhood below. fun map
Bush Shifts Terms for Measuring Progress in Iraq WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — With the Democratic-led Congress poised to measure progress in Iraq by focusing on the central government’s failure to perform, President Bush is proposing a new gauge, by focusing on new American alliances with the tribes and local groups that Washington once feared would tear the country apart. That shift in emphasis was implicit in Mr. Bush’s decision to bypass Baghdad on his eight-hour trip to Iraq, stopping instead in Anbar Province, once the heart of an anti-American Sunni insurgency. By meeting with tribal leaders who just a year ago were considered the enemy, and who now are fighting Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a president who has unveiled four or five strategies for winning over Iraqis — depending on how one counts — may now be on the cusp of yet another.
It is not clear whether the Democrats who control Congress will be in any mood to accept the changing measures. On Tuesday, there were contentious hearings over a Government Accountability Office report that, like last month’s National Intelligence Estimate, painted a bleak picture of Iraq’s future.
Tuesday 04 September 2007 U.S. President George W. Bush paid a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday after an 11-hour flight from the U.S. Instead of visiting Baghdad, his plane landed in a remote airbase in the western province of Anbar in an apparent gesture of impatience with the political gridlock in the capital. As well, the president has pointed to the largely Sunni province and the centre of the insurrection as a success story in pacification. Mr. Bush met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. The general and the ambassador will testify before the U.S. Congress next week regarding the effectiveness of the 30,000 reinforcements whom Mr. Bush sent to Iraq last winter. Mr. Bush says that some U.S. troops could leave Iraq if security conditions continue to improve, without specifying how many. After the brief visit to Iraq, Mr. Bush flew to Australia for the APEC summit.
Tuesday 28 August 2007 Police in the southern city of Kerbala report killing three pilgrims and injured 13 after pilgrims started a brawl with officers out of displeasure with strict security arrangements. Tens of thousands of pilgrims have congregated in Kerbala in anticipation of the yearly ceremonies on Tuesday and Wednesday to honour the 12th and last Imam, who they believe never died and will one day return to save mankind. Ten-thousand police officers and 5,000 soldiers have been deployed in the city. Meanwhile in Falluja west of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed 10 people and wounded 11 when he blew himself up after evening prayers in a mosque.
Sunday 26 August 2007 A limited curfew was ordered in Baghad on Saturday as the city prepared for the arrival of thousands of Shiite Muslim pilgrims next week to mark the birth of an important ninth-century imam. The curfew applies to motorcycles and bicycles and small carts. On the same day, seven people were killed and 30 others were wounded when a car bomb exploded in a Shiite neighbourhood. The blast happened in a public square where unemployed workers hoped to pick up casual jobs. The northwestern neighbourhood houses a shrine to the venerated imam Kadhim. It is known as a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia, loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Aug. 24 - U.S. forces opened fire from helicopters during an overnight clash with Shi'ite militants in western Baghdad.
Tuesday 21 August 2007 The War as We Saw It VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched.
A provincial governor has been murdered for the second time in two weeks. Mahammed Ali al-Hassani, the governor of southern Muthanna province was driving in a convoy of nine cars from his home in the city of Rumaitha to Samawa, the provincial capital, when it was struck by a roadside bomb. A bodyguard also was killed and two others wounded. The governor of Diwaniya province, also a member of the Shi'ite Supreme Iraqi islamic Council, was blown up two weeks ago. The SIIC and its armed wing, the Badr Organization, have been locked in a political struggle with the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr for control of southern towns and cities.
Wednesday 08 August 2007 Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, have signed an agreement that the Kurdish Workers' Party operating in northern Iraq should be suppressed. The Turkish military has repeatedly threatened to intervene in the mostly Kurdish areas of the area where the PKK finds safe havens. The head of northern Iraq's Kurdish leadership, Massoud Barzani, has rejected Turkish demands to crack down on the PKK. Turkish officials told the Reuters news agency that they realized that Mr. al-Maliki has little power in northern Iraq and that his authority has been weakened both by Iraq's internal security situation and the turmoil within his cabinet. On Monday, five secularist ministers said they would boycott the cabinet because of the government's failure to address demands which they had made in February. The main Sunni bloc left cabinet last week. Seventeen of Mr. al-Maliki's ministers, almost half the cabinet, have either left it or are boycotting it.
Tuesday 17 July 2007 IRAQ WAR TAKES A NEW SHAPE, AGAIN The
National, the
Globe and La
Presse go inside and the
Post briefs a truck bombing and two car bombings in the northern Iraqi
city of Kirkuk yesterday that took the lives of at least eighty people and
injured dozens more. The most powerful blast hit the headquarters of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party to which Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani belongs. The attacks come just a week after another bombing
in the region took the lives of 160 people. The Globe speculates that
extremists are targeting the ethnically Kurdish regions of northern Iraq
because they are being pushed out of Baghdad by a stepped-up US military
effort there, but an increase in violence in Kurdish Iraq could be the
prelude to a new problem in the war-torn country. The city of Kirkuk is
about to vote on whether to officially join the semi-autonomous Kurdish
region. The growth of the Kurdish independence movement has frightened
northern neighbour Turkey, which has a large and restive Kurdish
population. In recent weeks, Turkey has amassed
at least 200,000 troops on its border with Iraq, prompting fears of a new
front opening in the war in Iraq.
Here's one to ponder... [from our Dr. David Mitchell]
Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, here's an interesting statistic:
There has been a monthly average of 160,000 US troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths.
That gives a monthly firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period.
That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq .
Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington
A Firm Bush Tells Congress Not to Dictate War Policy WASHINGTON, July 12 — President Bush struck an aggressive new tone on Thursday in his clash with Congress over Iraq, telling lawmakers they had no business trying to manage the war, portraying the conflict as a showdown with Al Qaeda and warning that moving toward withdrawal now would risk “mass killings on a horrific scale.”
Wednesday 11 July 2007 rci U.S. President George W. Bush has asked Congress to be patient with the prosecution of the war in Iraq, and asking it to wait until the top U.S. commander there, Gen. David Petraeus, returns to Washington in September to report on the success of the U.S. troop "surge." The president ordered 28,000 more troops to Iraq in January, bringing the present total to 155,000. Mr. Bush says that the final wave of the reinforcements arrived only last month and that it's therefore too soon to reach conclusions. Meanwhile, a poll carried out by Gallup for the USA Today newspaper indicates that seven of 10 asked favour withdrawing almost all U.S. troops from Iraq and that 62 per cent believe it was a mistake to send them there.
Wednesday 04 July 2007 The Iraqi cabinet has approved a new draft law on the distribution of Iraq's oil wealth among the country's different sections and has sent it to parliament for debate. The law is intended to ensure that all sections obtain a fair share of oil revenues, despite the location of most oilfields in the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, the central areas inhabited by Sunnis having little energy wealth. The law would set up a new oil firm to oversee the industry and provide a legal framework for foreign investment. The U.S. government has pressured the Iraqis to pass such a law as a way of assuaging the sectarian violence raging between Sunnis and Shi'ites. Other laws waiting to be passed are one to allow some members of the disbanded Baath Party to return to government and another to set provincial elections by the end of the year. Meanwhile a car bomb killed 21 people and injured 36 others in a Shi'ite neighbourhood of Baghdad.
Tuesday 03 July 2007 The U.S. military has again accused Iran of supporting militant Shi'ite extremists in Iraq. Brig.-Gen. Kevin Bergner claims Iran played a direct role in an attack that killed five U.S. soldiers in January. The general says Iran is trying to create an Iraqi version of the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah and is using Hezbollah operatives to train the Iraqis. Brig.-Gen. Bergner claims as well that Iran's Republic Guard is providing as much as $3 million a month to Iraqi militants and is training them at three camps near Teheran in methods of bombings, raids and kidnappings. The Iranian foreign ministry denies such involvement in Iraq as it has done in the past. Hezbollah claims it operates only in Lebanon.
Wednesday 20 June 2007 OTTAWA: GOVT. REASSURING ON DOMESTIC TALIBAN THREAT
Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has offered reassurance in response to a report that Afghan Taliban insurgents could mount attacks inside Canada itself. The minister says Taliban fighters have a limited ability to travel and to pierce border security. He was reacting to a report by the U.S. television network ABC that suicide bombers are being sent from Afghanistan to Canada, the U.S. and other countries. The network reports that 300 recruits, some only young boys, graduated from an al-Qaeda-Taliban training school in the presence of a Pakistani journalist and were dispatched on suicide missions. ABC is displaying on its Website a video showing a Taliban leader who suggests that since Americans, Canadians and Germans are coming from so far to Afghanistan, there's no reason why Afghans cannot repay the favour. The Canadian television network CTV quotes a Canadian official as saying that western intelligence services have known for some time that the Taliban leadership has ordered attacks outside Afghanistan and take the threat seriously.
Thursday 17 May 2007 Iraqi insurgents claim to have killed two U.S. soldiers who are the object of an intense search south of Baghdad. The insurgents posted a video on a Website that shows the soldiers' ID but offers no other proof of their deaths. Three soldiers were captured in an ambush on May 12 in which several soldiers were killed. The body of one captured soldiers has been recovered. In other news, the U.S. military has acknowledged the veracity of a document published by the New York Times newspaper that says that despite a U.S.-Iraqi security "surge" that began in February, the Iraqi and U.S. military control only 146 of the capital's 457 neighbourhoods.
Saturday 16 June 2007 IRAQ
The U.S. Defence Secretary has expressed disappointment at the Iraqi government's efforts toward reconciling the country's warring factions. Speaking during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, Robert Gates noted that U.S. troops are buying time for the Iraqis to pursue reconciliation, but the results so far are disappointing.
Tuesday 12 June 2007 IRAQ: Blood, Sweat and Tears at New U.S. Embassy WASHINGTON, Jun 8 (IPS) - The U.S. Justice Department is actively investigating allegations of forced labour and other abuses by the Kuwaiti contractor now rushing to complete the sprawling 592-million-dollar U.S. embassy project in Baghdad, numerous sources have revealed.
This simply boggles the mind ...
"When completed later this summer, it will be the most fortified U.S. diplomatic mission ever constructed, spanning 104 acres on the banks of the ancient Tigris River and holding more than 20 buildings. It will be comparable in size to the Vatican."
Tuesday May 29, 2007
The one good piece of international news we have identified is that the U.S.-Iran talks on Iraq's security seem to have borne some fruit, despite the unfortunate reminder that all was not serene when, at the end of the meeting, a truck bomb exploded outside one of Baghdad's most revered shrines, killing at least 19 people and damaging the Abdel Qadir Gilani mosque. .independent.co.uk/world/middle_east
Tuesday 22 May 2007
We are saddened and concerned by the outbreak of violence in Lebanon between the government and islamist militants, which does not show signs of abating despite pronouncements from the UN Secretary-General and the Arab League. The situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. It looks like the beginning of yet another long hot summer in the Middle East, but we are encouraged that the Democrats are in the process of backing away from the forced withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
As Wednesday Night has agreed in a rare moment of consensus, setting the deadline was an invitation to the insurgents to retrench and rebuild until the deadline was reached. This change is particularly important with increased fears that Iran is preparing to orchestrate a summer offensive in Iraq in alliance with Al Qaida and Sunni insurgents
RCI Radical Shi'ite clergyman and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr reappeared on Friday in the holy Shi'ite city of Kufa and delivered an anti-American sermon, demanding that U.S. troops leave. Al-Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army militia, had gone into hiding in Iran four months ago after U.S. and Iraqi forces started a security campaign in Baghdad. Meanwhile in the southern city of Basra, the British military has announced that Iraqi soldiers have killed the Mahdi Army's local commander, Wissam Abdul Qader. However, a senior member of the group blames the British for the killing. The British army is preparing to reduce its numbers in Basra from 7,000 to 5,500 in the next few weeks.
Iraq - what is to be said? While George Bush, as expected, has vetoed the Iraq bill, there is no lack of dismal reports about failures at every level, not only military failures, but most disturbing for the future economic outlook, degenerating infrastructure Iraq rebuilding 'is failing'
Tuesday 24 April 2007 Iraqi Oil: More Plentiful Than Thought While the war in Iraq stretches into its fifth year, a less bloody battle is raging over what lies beneath the carnage: oil.
Iraq: As the Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, ordered his six Cabinet ministers to quit the government, the endless killing continues. Iraq's government is holding talks with some insurgent groups, including members of the former regime, as part of a reconciliation plan, ... as at least 58 people were killed or found dead. The latest violence came amid claims by a top Iraqi insurgent leader that his Al-Qaeda-linked group had begun manufacturing its own rockets.
Meanwhile a reported 50,000 Iraqis are fleeing the country each month. The UN is pleading for assistance from Iraq's neighbors to keep their borders open to Iraqis and looks to other countries to share the burden of these refugees miamiherald.com/
Tuesday 10 April 2007
The continuing turmoil in Iraq as the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and the end of Sadam Hussein=s rule aljazeera.net/ The rally is seen as a show of strength for al-Sadr, who has not been seen for more than two months.
Saturday 07 April 2007 Following a threat from Kurdish members of Iraq's parliament to leave the unity government, a plan was agreed upon to offer compensation and land in Iraq's Arab south for Arabs willing to leave the disputed city of Kirkuk, which Kurds want to include in their region. See article
Iraq's most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who has been notably quieter in the past year or so, seemed to reject the unity government's plan to allow members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party back into public service. Sunni Arabs say this may hamper Shia-Sunni reconciliation.
Tuesday 20 March 2007 HANGING BEFORE DAWN MARKS FOUR YEARS OF WAR IN IRAQ
Before dawn this morning—on the fourth anniversary of the US-led war
in Iraq—Saddam Hussein’s former vice president, Taha Yassin
Ramadan, was hanged. The
Post notes that “Ramadan is the fourth ex-regime figure,
including Saddam himself, to be hanged for crimes against humanity over
the killing of 148 Shiites from the town of Dujail” Following the
controversial executions of Saddam Hussein and his half-brother Barzan
Ibrahim (the former having been filmed on a cell-phone video
clip that revealed a crowd jeering right up to the moment of hanging,
the latter having ended in the inadvertent decapitation of the convicted),
the
Post reports Bassam al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, as saying “the execution was smooth with no
violation.” Ramadan’s lawyer, Badie Aref, said that the US
military had granted Ramadan a telephone call to his family before his
execution. "He was very calm and composed,” stated Aref.
According to CTV
News, Yahya Ibrahim, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars,
announced that three days of mourning would be held by Sunnis for Ramadan,
and that he would be buried, as was his wish, near Saddam Hussein.
Wed1306 Sunday Mar 11, 2007
While the awful drama continues in Iraq, amidst new fears of war over Kurdish lands, we note with interest that Halliburton is moving its headquarters to Dubai and wonder what the story behind this story is. Will Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld follow?
Monday 19 February 2007 Video: A Trip to Iowa, Dominated by Iraq
Senator John McCain fielded tough questions about the war during a trip to Iowa over the weekend.
Wednesday 14 February 2007 nyt U.S. Says Powerful Iraqi Cleric Is Living in Iran
Officials suggested that the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr might have fled Iraq to avoid being captured or killed during the U.S. crackdown. WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The powerful Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr has left Iraq and has been living in Iran for the past several weeks, senior Bush administration officials said Tuesday.
Tuesday 13 February 2007 Skeptics Doubt U.S. Evidence on Iran Action in Iraq Three weeks after promising it would show proof of Iranian meddling in Iraq, the Bush administration has laid out its evidence — and received in return a healthy dose of skepticism.
30 January 2007 US must abandon Iraqi cities or face nightmare scenario, say experts
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
This is the central recommendation of a study by the Brookings Institution here, based on the assumption that President Bush's last-ditch troop increase fails to stabilise the country - but also on the reality that Washington cannot simply walk away from the growing disaster unleashed by the 2003 invasion.
Thursday 18 January 2007 There was more violence in Iraq Wednesday. A suicide car bomb struck a market in the Shiite district of Sadr City and police said 17 people died and at least 33 others were wounded. The attack came a day after a blast targeting university students killed 70 in what appeared to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence against Shiites. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a convoy carrying members of a US democracy group was ambushed by gunmen, and four of the workers, including an American woman, were killed, an official said. The three-car convoy belonged to the National Democratic Institute, and among the dead was an American, a Hungarian, a Croatian and an Iraqi. At least ten people were killed and 38 others were wounded when a suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives hit a police station in central Kirkuk. On Tuesday, the United Nations released an estimation that more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians died in violence last year. The UN's figure was almost three times higher than the Iraqi government's. The government disputes the UN's estimate.
Wednesday Jan 17, 2007 No 'quick fix' for Bush Iraq plan
There are no guarantees of success for the joint new US-Iraqi security drive to curb violence in Baghdad, the US commander in Iraq has warned.
Gen George Casey said he did not expect "overnight" results but believed the measures "can work".
In the wake of President Bush's unusual appearance at last Wednesday Night [Wed1297page2.asp], there was a notable air of pessimism if not scepticism about the outcomes of the new surge strategy in Iraq which appear to have been confirmed by the week's news including today's bombing at Baghdad university , a sad footnote to the UN report that 34,452 civilians have been killed in violence in Iraq over the past year (slightly less than the number of traffic fatalities in the U.S. in 2005) and about 36,885 people have been wounded. Nor are we greatly encouraged that Saudi Arabia and Egypt support the new policy, for as long as Iran remains the major destabilizing actor [economist.], the mayhem is likely to continue and worsen. However, there are some questions about Iran's ability to continue to exploit the current situation. For a thoughtful analysis, see "Rhetoric and Reality: The View from Iran" by George Friedman published on the Stratfor Website.
Monday 15 January 2007 U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans The president’s new plan faces some of its fiercest resistance from the people it depends on for success: Iraqi government officials.
Friday 12 January 2007 Two major religious figures in Iraq on Sunday held their first meeting in more than a year. The radical Shi'ite cleric and militant leader, Moqtada al-Sadr met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf. They discussed security issues and the political situation in Iraq, but no details were reported. Moqtada al-Sadr's political bloc is part of the unity government led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. But the cleric's militant followers in the Mehdi Army are blamed for sowing sectarian violence. On Saturday, Mr. al-Maliki announced a major crackdown against all armed groups in Baghdad, regardless of their sect. Sectarian violence has been killing hundreds of Iraqis each week, most of them in Baghdad. On Sunday, police in the city found the bodies of 17 people apparently killed by death squads.
Monday 01 January 2007 nyt Rush to Hang Hussein Was Questioned American officials are said to have questioned the political wisdom — and justice — of expediting the death of Saddam Hussein.
"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam."
- Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled 'U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,' September 4, 1967. thanks to Francis Kinnelly
So Now What, Mr. President? Monday Dec 4, 2006 
Hopes rise of a “yes” to Iraq's constitution Oct 18th 2005 
(Xinhua) www.chinaview.cn 07 November 2006 
Andy Nulman 
Middle East 
Factsheet 
A conversation with Richard Holbrooke
NEWSMEAT
![- [S]](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/images/iconS.gif){kind=icon}
Fighting over the war
Two Markets Bombed in Central Baghdad, Killing at Least 67 and Wounding 155 nyt 
In Address, Bush Insists U.S. Must Not Fail in Iraqnyt
Gen Casey expects improvement through the summer and autumn
Terrorism 
The Iraqi economy’s weak heart 
){kind=link}
