HUMAN TERRAIN WORKERS FEDERALIZED

"... Since the inception of the project in 2006... interpreters, researchers and managers, deployed overseas (in Iraq and Afghanistan) as part of the Army’s social science program, the Human Terrain System... have been generously-paid contractors, serving as cultural counselors to combat units... (Now) they’re all becoming government employees... Which means that Human Terrain pay is suddenly not all that generous. One linguist, previously pulling in an annual salary $270,000, will now make about $91,000 — if that person continues his warzone work for the Human Terrain project... The dollar amount reduction is more than 60%... the switch was ostensibly triggered by the American military’s new Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government. The pact, which went into effect in January, gives Baghdad officials broad new powers to control contractors on their soil (but not U.S. civil servants)..."
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/02/more-hts-mania

ARMY AND SEX DISCIPLINE IN IRAQ

"Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo... oversees forces in northern Iraq, an area that includes the cities of Kirkuk, Tikrit and Mosul.... has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed... The new policy... would apply to both female soldiers who become pregnant on the battlefield and the male soldiers who impregnate them. Civilians reporting to Cucolo also could face criminal prosecution under the new guidelines... troops also are prohibited from "sexual contact of any kind" with Iraqi nationals. And, they cannot spend the night with a member of the opposite sex, unless married or expressly permitted to do so..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-12-18-pregnant-soldiers_N.htm?csp=usat.me

"… Since November 4th, when the policy was first put in place, four women soldiers were redeployed because they had become pregnant "in violation of Cucolo's order." The four women and two male soldiers ostensibly responsible for two of the pregnancies received letters of reprimand… One of the pregnant soldiers refused to provide the name of her partner… this policy has exposed the lack of consistent access to contraceptive supplies on many bases, and the lack of access particularly to emergency contraception.  The army does not pay for abortion services for female soldiers facing unintended pregnancies; instead soldiers must take leave to fly home and and pay out of their own funds..."
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/12/25/us-commander-iraq-rescind-policy-punishing-pregnant-soldiers

MURDOCH IN 2003 FORSAW CHEAP OIL FROM IRAQ

"Rupert Murdoch has given his full backing to war, praising George Bush... (and) said the price of oil would be one of the war's main benefits. "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy... would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/feb/12/uk.iraqandthemedia

IRAQ AUCTIONING RIGHTS TO DEVELOP OILFIELDS

"... (an alliance of) Shell and Malaysia's state-run oil company, Petronas... won the rights to develop the giant Majnoon oilfield... which has estimated reserves of almost 13bn barrels of oil... A group of oil companies led by China's CNPC struck a deal to develop the Halfaya field... with 4.1bn (barrels)... A total of 45 firms are vying for 20-year contracts to develop the 10 fields, spanning from northern Iraq to major fields in the Basra region in the south. Among the bidders are Britain's BP, America's Exxon Mobil and state-backed companies from Asia... Iraq... sorely needs international companies' help in boosting production and revamping its dilapidated oil sector..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/11/shell-petronas-majnoon-oilfield-iraq

"... In June (Round 1), Iraq held its first oil auction, offering foreign companies the chance to increase production at already-pumping fields... The latest auction (Round) 2 was the first time foreign firms could bid on untapped fields... After at least $2 trillion spent by Washington and arguably more than a million dead Iraqis... Instead of US Big Oil getting the lion's share, strategic competitors Russia and China turned out to be big winners... The bids, supervised by the Oil Ministry... forced 44 foreign Big Oil corporations to cut to the max the fee they collect on every barrel extracted in Iraq and submit to 20-year contracts. These multinationals were not given a share in Iraqi oil production; they will be paid a $2 fee per barrel for raising output above a mutually agreed level.."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KL16Ak02.html

FT. HOOD SHOOTER BOTHERED BY WAR CRIMES

"... In the weeks before the rampage, the accused gunman, Maj. Nidal M. Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, told colleagues and Army lawyers that he wanted to report soldiers who had admitted in counseling sessions that they witnessed or committed war crimes in Iraq or Afghanistan. War crimes can include acts like torture, murder, sexual assault and cruel treatment. Though Major Hasan was discouraged from filing reports on his patients, military officials say, he would have been within his rights as an Army psychiatrist to have done so. Major Hasan’s efforts to report war crimes were first reported by ABC News..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/us/07therapists.html?_r=1&sudsredirect=true

BUSH "HELL-BENT" ON INVADING IRAQ

"U.S. leaders were "hell-bent" on invading Iraq in 2003, and President Bush had no real interest in getting U.N. approval for it, according to Jeremy Greenstock, the British U.N. ambassador from 1998 to 2003. Greenstock testified to a U.K. inquiry.
He said that serious preparations for the invasion began in early 2002, nearly a year before the war began, and that Bush and his inner circle paid little attention to U.S. allies' requests to take more time to find evidence of Iraqi WMDs.
Greenstock said the war was... of "questionable legitimacy" adding that he, like former British ambassador to the U.S. Christopher Meyer, believes Bush and Tony Blair met in Crawford, Texas to "sign in blood" a secret agreement to invade Iraq..."
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=81878

"The United States was "hell bent" on a 2003 military invasion of Iraq and actively undermined efforts by Britain to win international authorization for the war... serious preparations for the war had begun in early 2002 and took on an unstoppable momentum... As diplomats frantically attempted in early 2003 to agree upon a U.N. resolution approving a military offensive, Bush's key aides grew impatient — criticizing the process as an unnecessary distraction... Several nations had hoped to stall the invasion of Iraq to allow U.N. weapons inspectors more time to search for evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction — the key justification for the war. No such weapons were ever found..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3md2ReGxE9CkpczxPehN4pM-z7gD9C7VRD01

U.S. ASCRIBES BAATH VIOLENCE TO AL QAEDA

"The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki... aired the confessions of three men, members of the Baath Party, that it captured after the October 25 bombings that killed 125 persons and destroyed several government buildings.. US politicians and military men seem reluctant to acknowledge the underground Baath Party as a source of some of Iraq's continued violence, choosing instead to attribute virtually all major violence to "al-Qaeda," by which they appear to mean the Islamic State of Iraq or similar Salafi organizations not in fact directly connected to Usama Bin Laden. This discourse seems to me to have elements of propaganda in it, and began with Bush's and Cheney's attempts to link their war on Iraq with 9/11..."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/11/iraq-accuses-baathists-election-law.html

AL QAEDA IN IRAQ REGAINING STRENGTH

"The Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has rebounded in strength in recent months and appears to be launching a concerted effort to cripple the Iraqi government as U.S. troops withdraw... al-Qaeda in Iraq intends to carry out additional high-profile attacks in the months ahead and is attempting to regain its foothold in former strongholds just outside the capital... it stands to gain from a deeply split political establishment, growing Sunni resentment toward the Shiite-led government, disjointed Iraqi security agencies and the diminishing ability of U.S. forces to engage in combat operations in Iraq..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/21/AR2009112102009.html?wprss=rss_world&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wp-dyn%2Frss%2Fworld%2Findex_xml+(washingtonpost.com+-+World)

UNPRECEDENTED BIRTH DEFECTS IN FALLUJAH

"Doctors are calling for an investigation into an unprecedented number of birth defects in Fallujah, Iraq... The war-ravaged population center has seen an increase of up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants since pre-war levels... Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs. There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years with brain tumors. This is now a focus area of multiple tumors... The Raw Story reporter mentions white phosphorus bombs as a possibility also, but my money is on depleted uranium, or maybe the combination of both..."
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/11/15/91532/126

TYCOON SAYS U.S. ENTITLED TO IRAQI OIL

"Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq's vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.

"They're opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world ... We're entitled to it," Pickens said of Iraq's oil. "Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars. We leave there with the Chinese getting the oil," Pickens said..."

http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2149238420091021

TROOPS TAKING SALSA AND YOGA CLASSES IN IRAQ

"As the economy sputters along, trying in vein to shake off the worst recession in history and America taxpayers are forking out $12 billion dollars a month to keep 117,000 combat troops stationed in Iraq, it comes as a disturbing surprise to learn many of the troops spend their time in Iraq taking salsa dancing, yoga and martial-arts classes... there appears to be no security justification for keeping 117,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq at least another year."
http://open.salon.com/blog/christopher_di_spirito/2009/10/21/us_troops_in_iraq_bored_taking_salsa_and_yoga_classes

"... many of the 117,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq say they now have more idle time... in places such as this large military base in southern Iraq... (there are) book clubs, karaoke nights, sports and distance-learning university programs..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-10-20-idle-troops-iraq_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

30,000 SINGLE MOTHERS DEPLOYED

"More than 30,000 single mothers have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army, the most heavily deployed branch of the military, gives women just four months to stay stateside with their newborns before deploying to the war zone, leaving them little time to bond with or nurse their infants. The divorce rate for female soldiers is nearly triple that of the men who wear the same uniform..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-glantz/report-30000-single-mothe_b_322185.html

IRAQ STANDS WITH IRAN AGAINST U.S. SANCTIONS

"Iraq's president said new sanctions against Iran won't work and warned Saturday that Iraq will never allow Israel or any other country to use its airspace to carry out an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities... President Jalal Talabani (said) "I think the Iranian leadership explained that the bomb is against Islam because it's killing innocent people," he said. "So they said openly that they are not for having the bomb but only the use of technology."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090926/ap_on_re_us/us_us_iraq_2

CONSERVATIVE GEORGE WILL: GET OUT OF IRAQ

"... If, in spite of contrary evidence, the U.S. surge permanently dampened sectarian violence, all U.S. forces can come home sooner than the end of 2011. If, however, the surge did not so succeed, U.S. forces must come home sooner."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/03/AR2009090301866_pf.html

"Will's main arguments are:
1. The past 6 1/2 years in Iraq has produced 4,327 American dead and 31,483 wounded
2. The US military is exhausted and needs a break
3. Afghanistan is spiralling down
4. It is a poor use of US troops to deploy them for a) nation-building or b) baby-sitting and correcting other peoples' politicians
5. The Iraqi government is an ingrate and makes no secret of its belief that it does not need US troops
6. It may be true that Iran will inherit Iraq as a client if the US leaves, but this outcome is unavoidable and cannot be forestalled by a longer US stay
7. An extension of the US presence in Iraq will not succeed in ensuring Iraqi democracy, which is fragile and may not survive regardless of what the US does
8. A longer US stay cannot prevent Iraq from falling back into civil war
9. Either the surge succeeded or it did not. If it did, then Iraq is secure and the US isn't needed. If it did not, then no further surge is likely to, either."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/09/great-withdrawer-george-will-repudiates.html

DIFFICULT LOGISTICS OF WITHDRAWAL

"... the biggest logistical challenge since the Vietnam War... how to transfer out... mountains of equipment along with 143,000 troops and a similar number of civilians, amid the continuing threat of roadside bombs, ambushes, and suicide attacks from insurgents and terrorists... A recent internal Army report laid out the sheer enormity of the task: 31 million items must be moved, including 100,000 pieces of "rolling stock,'' 120,000 containers, 34,000 tons of ammunition, and 618 aircraft. The job will require an estimated 240,000 truckloads, which translates to 8,000 convoys. Much of that material will contribute to 119 shiploads. Nearly 300,000 American personnel, military and civilian, will withdraw, and 350 bases large and small across the country will be shuttered or handed over to Iraqi forces... (a) major task will be to keep track of everything in transit - a notorious failure after the 1991 Persian Gulf War when the Pentagon had thousands of containers sitting in Kuwait but had no idea what was in them."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/28-6

DECLINE OF IRAQ AGRICULTURE

"Once world's bread basket, Iraq now a farming basket case... the twin disasters of war and sanctions... have transformed the country from one of the world's premier sources of aromatic rice and nearly 500 kinds of dates 30 years ago into a net importer of food..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/72051.html

AS WE PULL BACK FROM IRAQ

"... As we pull back... more than six years after the US invasion, Iraq is shattered. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead -- far more, incidentally, than even the largest estimates of the number of Iraqis who died during 35 years of Saddam Hussein's rule -- its social fabric is utterly destroyed, its economy is in ruins, and its dominant political faction is in hock to neighboring Iran.... Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki... is taking on the trappings of a dictator... and has close ties to Iran..."
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/447282/little_to_celebrate_in_iraq

OIL COMPANIES STILL TRYING TO GET PSA PRODUCTION SHARING AGREEMENTS

"... major companies - including Exxon, Shell, BP and Total - will gather at Iraq's oil ministry in Baghdad for a two-day meeting to take part in the first bidding round for oil service contracts. However, what the oil companies will be entitled to if they secure a contract has become one of the most controversial elements of the bidding process.

The companies want a long-term share of the oil they produce under a Production Sharing Agreement, which allows them to book reserves in advance and tell the market exactly how much oil they expect to produce.

This is exactly the type of contract that Iraqis in the oil industry are opposed to. They argue oil companies should be awarded Technical Service Agreements, meaning they will be paid solely to develop Iraq's oil fields..."

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/20096288505111580.html

IRAQ TO ANNOUNCE OIL CONTRACTS
Based on fees for service, not production sharing agreements (PSA)

"Iraq will at the end of June announce which major foreign oil companies have been awarded new contracts to work in the country... The deals will be service agreements in which successful bidders are paid a fee by Baghdad and not production sharing contracts where profits are shared... The decision by Baghdad to award only service contracts to foreign companies differs from the country's autonomous Kurdish region, where numerous profit-sharing deals have been struck...."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090607/bs_afp/iraqoilcompanies

ABU GHRAIB RAPE PHOTOS ALLEGED, DENIED

"... A Defense Department official who has seen the unreleased images... said there are about 2,000 images related to detainee abuse, none of which are from Abu Ghraib, and the images do not include depictions of sexual abuse. The official said the government does not have secret images of rape buried in its files..."
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/02/suppressed_photos/?source=newsletter

"Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse... At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube... Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.... Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5395830/Abu-Ghraib-abuse-photos-show-rape.html

U.S. ARMY PREPARED TO STAY IN IRAQ

"The Pentagon is prepared to remain in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between Washington and Baghdad that would bring all American troops home by 2012... (said) Gen George Casey... (whose) duties include main responsibility for assembling the manpower and determining assignments... he was adamant he did not intend to contradict Obama administration policy, which is to bring US combat forces home from Iraq in 2010. The US and Iraq have agreed that all American forces would leave by 2012..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/5391252/US-Army-prepared-to-stay-in-Iraq-for-a-decade.html

IRAQ PEACE ERODING

"Iraq's fragile peace already is eroding — April was the bloodiest month in a year — and it could unravel completely as the U.S. draws down its forces and prepares to leave Iraq... the Americans and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government... (need) to release detainees from Sunni groups that have stopped fighting, stop pursuing the groups' members, protect them from the Shiite Muslim-dominated Iraqi government and help them make the transition from warriors to politicians. The U.S. hasn't fulfilled any of its promises... Sunni fighters who agreed to stop fighting in exchange for help from the U.S. military think they've been betrayed... (they) worry that the U.S. will leave and Iraq will be lost to a corrupt government controlled by Iran..."

"Under the new security agreement with Iraq, the U.S. military can do little to help the mostly Sunni former insurgents who played the main role in reducing the violence in Iraq, and the American military... worries that when the U.S. leaves, all the progress toward peace will be reversed."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/68616.html

IRAQI DEATH AND SUFFERING TOLL

"... the actual death and human suffering toll in Iraq might top the list of... he most under-reported story of the 21st century... The website Iraq Body Count has cross-documented the violent deaths of between 90,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians since the 2003 American led invasion and occupation. Most experts agree that this number is, in all probability, significantly below the actual death toll. A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins estimated that as of July, 2006, the death toll had exceeded 600,000 people. A September 2007 study by the prestigious British polling firm Opinion Research Business, put the death toll at 1.2 million Iraqis... MIT researcher John Tirman has reported that there are perhaps 1 million Iraqi widows, up to 5 million orphans, and 4.5 million refugees as a result of the war..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/23-3

WATERBOARDING FAILED TO LINK AL-QAIDA WITH IRAQ

"... questions regarding al-Qaida's ties to the Iraqi regime were among the first presented to senior al-Qaida operational planner Khalid Shaikh Muhammad following his capture... The mastermind of the September 11 attacks... was waterboarded 183 times that same month.... The efforts at establishing a link never bore fruit... a Behavioral Science Consultation Team was "focused on trying to establish a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq... (but said) "we were not being successful in establishing a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/15/ksm-was-questioned-about_n_203898.html

NEOCOLONIALISM: THE NEW U.S. MISSION IN IRAQ

"... Obama's announced withdrawal plan clearly doesn't end the Iraq occupation, but rather continues it in a new form. The plan only calls for the withdrawal of "combat troops" by August 2010, while leaving behind 35,000-50,000 occupying troops until the end of 2011, many of whom will be combat troops simply relabeled as "advisory and assistance brigades".

"The plan says nothing about the parallel army of over 100,000 American mercenaries and private contractors who currently roam Iraq, nor does it address the fate of 283 military bases and installations in Iraq, including the 58 permanent bases where US troops will continue to be garrisoned."

"... the primary mission of American troops in Iraq both now and after the initial drawdown in August 2010 will be to preserve and extend this regime, both by incorporating former Sunni and Shi'ite insurgents who are willing to work with the United States-sponsored system and by eliminating those who are opposed, incarcerating the rest behind walled-off enclaves patrolled by unmanned aerial drones. Establishing a client regime to protect the interests of empire, while leaving behind a garrison of troops and bases has long been termed neo-colonialism..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KE07Ak01.html

CIA: NO PROOF TORTURE STOPPED TERROR ATTACKS ON U.S.

"The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks"... That undercuts assertions by former vice president Dick Cheney..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66895.html

TORTURE KILLED MORE AMERICANS THAN 9/11

"The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11... says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq... In the case of foreign fighters – recruited mostly from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and North Africa – the reason cited by the great majority for coming to Iraq was what they had heard of the torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. These abuses, not fundamentalist Islam, had provoked so many of the foreign fighters volunteering to become suicide bombers... His overall message is that the American people do not have to make a choice between torture and terror."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/torture-it-probably-killed-more-americans-than-911-1674396.html

IRAQ BOMBINGS A WARNING TO U.S. AND IRAN

"... (a) wave of suicide killings... accounted for more than 250 lives this month... Many of the victims were Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite shrines. Al Qaeda has not given up on Iraq... By targeting Shiites and Iranian pilgrims with (female) suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden is warning Tehran and Washington that their unfolding bid to bracket their resources together for ending the Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts will precipitate fresh trouble not only in those arenas, but also in Iraq...

" (a) major change in Iraq has opened the door to al Qaeda's recovery. The 100,000 commanders and fighters of the Awakening Councils, the strong arm of the US surge strategy for crushing al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents, has dropped out of the war... after Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered mass detentions of the Sunni-dominated force's members..."

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6041

SADDAM GENERAL REBUFFS U.S. PLEA FOR HELP IN IRAQ

"American and British officials from a secretive unit called the Force Strategic Engagement Cell flew to Jordan to try to persuade one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals... to return home to resume efforts to make peace with the new Iraq. But the Iraqi commander, Lt. Gen. Raad Majid al-Hamdani, rebuffed them... he concluded that Iraq’s leader, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, simply was not interested in reconciliation... Maliki’s earlier effort to reunite the country was one of Washington’s primary benchmarks for measuring political progress in Iraq..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/middleeast/26baathists.html?_r=1&hp

FALSE CONNECTION BETWEEN AL-QAEDA AND SADDAM CAME FROM TORTURE
Legal opinion later concocted to justify it

"While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not being successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq," Army psychiatrist Maj. Paul Burney is quoted in the Senate report as saying about Guantánamo. "The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish this link ... there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."

"... The Justice Department opinion condoning abusive interrogations did not come out until August, eight months after the Bush administration started putting the program together and presumably well after... torture had begun."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/04/22/benjamin/index.html

AL-QAEDA BOMBINGS WILL NOT DELAY U.S. WITHDRAWAL

"An Iraqi official... said the bombings would not derail the phased withdrawal of American troops... "It would be good for Al-Qaeda if US forces stayed in Iraq, because they could justify their kidnappings, bombings and killings," he told AFP..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jx2-KUEQZxdMnueKlUPlqW6Zgnmw

U.S. AIR RAID DEATHS ARE 85% WOMEN AND CHILDREN

"... Iraq Body Count (IBC) found that 39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women. Fatalities caused by mortars, used by American and Iraqi government forces as well as insurgents, were 42 per cent children and 44 per cent women... The report, 'The Weapons That Kill Civilians, Deaths of Children and Noncombatants in Iraq', was compiled from a sample of 60,481 deaths in 14,196 events over a five-year period since the 2003 invasion. Civilian casualties from concentrated bouts of violence, such as the two sieges of Fallujah, were excluded..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-air-raids-hit-mostly-women-and-children-1669282.html

WITHDRAWAL TO INCREASE COSTS FOR YEARS

"The removal of about 140,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 will be a "massive and expensive effort" that is likely to increase rather than lower Iraq-related expenditures during the withdrawal and for several years after its completion... The price of equipment repairs and replacements, along with closing or turning over 283 U.S. military installations in Iraq, "will likely be significant..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR2009032402741.html

IRAQ TO RELOCATE ANTI-IRAN MEK TERRORISTS

"Iraq's national security adviser said Friday that the government intends to move an Iranian opposition group... Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK... from its sanctuary near the Iranian border... "Their days in Iraq are numbered"... The U.S. military has protected the group's camp in Iraq since the 2003 invasion... "The party is over for them. The party is over for coalition protection for them," he said, referring to the U.S. military."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/27/AR2009032702954.html?nav=rss_email/components

BILLIONS OF U.S. AID WASTED IN IRAQ

"... Stuart Bowen, the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, told Congress that... about $3 billion to $5 billion in U.S. aid for rebuilding Iraq has been wasted since 2003.."
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2544653120090325

CONDITION OF WOMEN IN IRAQ

"Women in Iraq still lack security and basic services... their plight a "silent emergency"... more than half the women had suffered from violence... more than 20% of widows had been victims of domestic violence... A third of all women surveyed said members of their families had died violently... A quarter did not have daily access to water supplies, and more than three-quarters were not getting pensions... health care provision was worse in 2008 than the two previous years, and almost half of respondents said they were getting poorer. ... Iraqi women are suffering a silent emergency, trapped in a downward spiral of poverty, desperation and personal insecurity despite an overall decrease in violence in the country... The majority feel that this is the will of God..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7930890.stm

FORMER IRANIAN PRESIDENT VISITS IRAQ

"One of Iran's most powerful political and religious figures — former President Hashemi Rafsanjani — began talks Monday with Iraqi leaders in the latest high-level contacts between the neighboring countries... Rafsanjani, an influential Shiite ayatollah, was given a red carpet welcome by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at Baghdad's airport... Talabani said Iraqi authorities could benefit from Rafsanjani's "long experience" as a leader who helped rebuild Iran after its war with Iraq."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090302/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

IRAQI POLICE SHOOT 4 U.S. SOLDIERS

"A US soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting at an Iraqi police station in the northern city of Mosul..."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090225/twl-iraq-unrest-us-7e07afd.html

"... Iraqi officials said the soldier opened fire after an altercation with the Americans during a joint patrol in the city... An official in the Iraqi interior ministry said "a US soldier slapped an Iraqi soldier during the patrol." A similar incident took place in Mosul in January 2007 when an Iraqi soldier opened fire on American troops during the erection of a combat outpost in the city, killing two US soldiers..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/25-5

OVER 1 MILLION HOMELESS IN BAGHDAD

"... The bombed building is in a state of total disrepair. Concrete blocks hang precariously from metal bars, many ceilings are partially collapsed, and all of the outer walls are gone. There is no water, no electricity, no sewage, and no garbage disposal. Piles of garbage, diapers, decaying food scraps and human excrement are scattered around the area... 35 families, about 750 people, live in this compound. ... Local NGOs estimate that more than 250,000 squatters live on the streets or in such shelters all over Baghdad... The International Organisation for Migration (IOM)... estimated there are 1.6 million internally displaced persons in Iraq... almost two-thirds, just over a million, live in Baghdad, more than half of them women or girls. The report pointed out that displaced women are more prone to rape and other forms of sexual violence..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45812

DOCTORS MUST HIDE, MEDICAL SYSTEM ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE

"Seventy percent of Iraq's doctors are reported to have fled the war-torn country in the face of death threats and kidnappings. Those who remain live in fear, often in conditions close to house arrest.... Doctors and other professionals become targets for kidnapping since they earn more money than most, and so fetch higher ransom... The Iraqi government estimates there were 36,000 doctors and medical personnel in Iraq when the U.S. invasion was launched in March 2003. Most escaped to neighbouring Arab countries, especially Jordan and Syria. In early 2008, the Iraqi Health Ministry said that 628 medical personnel have been killed since 2003. Many believe the real figure is far higher, and that there is additionally a very large number of doctors who have been kidnapped and tortured. In the absence of the doctors who left, particularly of senior doctors, the medical system is on the brink of collapse. It is short not just of doctors but also of other qualified staff, equipment and drugs. Patients are often forced to buy their own medicines on the black market."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45844

IRAQ GIVES IRAN $1.5 BILLION CONTRACT TO BUILD NEW TOWN IN BASRA

"An Iranian firm has won a $1.5 billion contract to build a new town in the southern city of Basra... The new town will have all the facilities of a modern city... there will be a supermarket, 2,000 commercial shops as well as annexes offering different services... The town will include 5,000 housing units as well as modern amenities like schools, markets, parks and health facilities... It is Iran’s largest construction contract in Iraq since the 2003-U.S. invasion and signals Tehran’s economic arm... the countries were reported to have drawn a roadmap to boost trade exchange value to $5 billion..."
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2009-02-15\kurd.htm

U.S. FRAUD IN IRAQ MAY EXCEED $50 BILLION

"American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125 billion in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq... a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50 billion, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme... The end of the Bush administration which launched the war may give fresh impetus to investigations into frauds in which tens of billions of dollars were spent on reconstruction with little being built that could be used..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/a-fraud-bigger-than-madoff-1622987.html

GENERAL IN IRAQ AGREES WITH OBAMA PULLOUT SCHEDULE

CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus and Multinational Force Iraq (MNF-I) Commander General Ray Odierno have... (said Obama's) 16-month withdrawal plan would pose significantly greater risk to "security gains" than the 23-month plan they favour. But... Maj. Gen. Michael Oates, U.S. commander for the eight southern provinces of Iraq, denied... that the security gains in that region were fragile, contrary to the premise that Odierno has publicly asserted... Oates had told reporters that, even if violence were to break out after provincial elections, Iraqi security forces "are well prepared to handle that". He also cast doubt on Iranian involvement with Shi'a militias in the south, saying he had "no evidence or reports of people training in Iran", despite periodic "anecdotal intelligence reports" of such training camps..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45795

IRAQ WAR DOOMED BY U.S. CORRUPTION MORE THAN POOR PLANS OR VIOLENCE

"Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program... investigations, which are being conducted by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Justice Department, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command and other federal agencies... raise the question of whether American corruption was a primary factor in damaging an effort whose failures have been ascribed to poor planning and unforeseen violence..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html?_r=1&hp
and
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/15-0

GENERALS TO MOBILIZE PUBLIC AGAINST OBAMA DECISION TO WITHDRAW

"... (General) Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy. A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilising public opinion against Obama's decision..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45640

TAXPAYERS SOAKED BY $51 BILLION SPENT ON IRAQ PROJECTS

"... poor planning, weak oversight and greed combined to soak U.S. taxpayers and undermine American forces in Iraq... Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says the U.S. has committed nearly $51 billion for a wide array of projects in Iraq... Some of these projects succeeded... but many did not..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/02-5

IRAQ SUPPORTS HAMAS, NOT ISRAEL

"... (Will) the new Iraqi government will support Israel rather than Hamas now that Saddam Hussein is gone (?)... The Islamic Da'wa Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called last week for all Muslim countries to cut off diplomatic relations with Israel and to cease all public and behind-the scenes contacts with it. Large demonstrations have been staged against Israel in Mosul, Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala..."
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/08/gaza/print.html

IRAQ TO DEPORT ANTI-IRAN MEK TERRORISTS

"Iraq plans to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage... The US and EU placed the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) on their lists of terrorist organisations after the September 11th attacks. ... US troops disarmed them after the 2003 invasion... but kept the camp intact because some Bush administration officials allegedly saw the MEK as a potential tool for regime change in Iran... The Shia-led government in Baghdad has forged close relations with fellow Shias in Tehran and rejects such ambitions..."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0102/1230842350664.html