Congress Passes Short Lease Bill For

Congress Passes Short-Leash Bill for Bush
9 Iraqi captives executed

Congress passed an appropriations bill that only funded the Iraq War for about three months on Thursday. Bush has said that he will veto it. Senate Dems are working to find 12 moderate Republicans who also want toe war to end.

WaPo confirms the report that a majority of Iraqi parliamentarians have signed a petition asking that a timetable for withdrawal of US troops be established.

Thursday’s session of parliament had to be cut short when a rancorous debate broke out. The initial issue was Shiites displaced from Diyala province to the holy city of Karbala. Speaker Muhammad al-Mashhadani was accused of smiling at a time when grief was more appropriate. He was then upbraided by a fellow Sunni from a different party. He slapped the MP before pounding his gavel and closing the session.

The falsely named ‘Islamic State in Iraq’ released a video Thursday of its murder of 9 Iraqi security officers. I think if they checked, they’d find that Islam forbids murder.

Oil workers in Basra postponed a planned strike. They oppose possible plans to privatize the oil industry.

Police found 20 corpses in the streets of Baghdad on Thursday. McClatchy also reports, “Around 3 am, American planes had raided Sadr City, killing 3 civilians and injuring 12 with huge damage to three houses and three cars.” I suspect that in aerially bombing a city that it itself occupies, and inflicting death and injury on civilians, the US is committing a war crime.

Reuters reports other political violence on Thursday:

‘ FALLUJA – A U.S. marine was killed in combat in Anbar province on Wednesday, the U.S. military said . . . [WaPo says two US soldiers were killed by gunfire on Thursday.]

MOSUL – A hospital received the bodies of three people, two women and a man, from one family in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. . .The bodies of two police officers were found in Mosul, police said. ‘

The USG Open Source Center paraphrases Iraqi news reports for May 10

Al-Istiqamah on 9 May carries . . . a . . . report regarding Al-Najaf [SCIRI leader] Sadr al-Din al-Qubbanchi’s visit to Karbala and his meeting with [Shiite] Diyala refugees who organized a sit-in in the city demanding the government to eliminate Takfiris [Sunnis who excommunicate Shiites] from the governorate. . .

Tariq al-Sha’b runs on the front page a 450-word report on the demonstration staged by Basra residents living near the British Consulate yesterday, 9 May, demanding the transfer of the consulate to another place to avoid the continuous random shelling in their district. . .

Ishraqat al-Sadr on 8 May carries on the front page a 250-word editorial by Chief Editor Fattah al-Shaykh praising Al-Sadr Trend for receiving and defending Sunni families that were displaced from their sensitive areas in Al-Karkh. . .

Al-Sabah al-Jadid publishes on page 3 a 200-word report citing Al-Najaf Advisory Council member Ali al-Isawi confirming that the local government has decided to only allow the movement of cars carrying security badges in the old Al-Najaf City. . .

Al-Bayyinah al-Jadidah runs on page 2 a 650-word report on the deteriorating security situation in Samarra. . . Al-Bayyinah carries on page 8 a 300-word report citing eyewitnesses saying that dozen of Wahabist takfiris (those who declare other Muslims as infidels) attacked government departments in Samarra. . . Al-Mashriq carries on page 3 a 1,000-word report saying that the people of Samarra are afraid of joining security or police forces.

Al-Bayyinah carries on the front page a 550-word exclusive report citing sources at the Interior Ministry saying that Saudi terrorists have begun displacing Christians from Al-Durah and closing their churches.

Al-Bayyinah carries on the front page a 320-word report citing a US democrat accusing Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt of involvement in armed operations and sectarian violence in Iraq. . .

Tariq al-Sha’b publishes on the front page a 300-word report on the annual report issued by the US Save Children Organization on 8 May confirming that the mortality rate among children has increased by 150 percent in Iraq since 1990. . .

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