Iraq

The LA Times summarizes the case made by journalist Ron Suskind that the Bush administration orchestrated the forging of a document by Iraqi defector and former intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush. Habbush was allegedly paid $5 million and settled in Jordan because of his cooperation. The document, which alleged that 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Atta received […]

The Guardian’s Ghaith Abdul-Ahad went back to Baghdad to see the effects of last year’s troop escalation (“surge”). He argues that the US military’s blast walls and forcible division of the city into isolated micro-neighborhoods are the cause of the reduction in deaths, not extra troops. The Real News provides a transcript.

For critics of Ron Suskind’s revelations that Bush and Cheney suppressed evidence that Iraq had no WMD, check out the below: Tyler Drumheller from a 2006 “60 Minutes” interview. Or how about the column of Imad Khadduri, an actual, living breathing Iraqi nuclear scientist, who before the war condemned Bush administration charges on WMD as […]

The Iraqi parliament will make another attempt on Tuesday to pass a provincial elections law that resolves controversies over how to treat troubled Kirkuk Province. AFP summarizes political violence in Iraq on Monday, which included the killing of 2 US GIs, strikes at Iraqi security forces on Palestine Street in Baghdad and an attempt on […]

An extraordinary Iraqi parliamentary session planned for Sunday to settle the provincial election law was cancelled at the last minute. Parliament is on recess in August. So to recap: No provincial election law means, probably, no provincial elections this year. No oil law. No significant Shiite-Sunni reconciliation. Politics gridlocked in Iraq. Westerners look for public […]

Guerrillas used a car bomb to kill 8 persons in Baghdad and wound 14 The Iraqi government will order $9 billion in weapons from US firms. This sort of thing, if it continues, would make the Iraq War worthwhile to the Military-Industrial Complex. If you want to turn an enemy into a customer, nothing does […]

The USG Open Source Center translates a newspaper interview with an official of the Turkmen Front. Turkmen speak a language similar to that used in Turkey, and so are the objects of concern of Turkey concerning their treatment in Iraq. Kurds implicated Turkmen in the horrific bombing at Kirkuk last week, though this allegation strikes […]

Kurdish members of the Kirkuk/Tamim Province governing council called Friday for the city of Kirkuk to be annexed to the nearby Kurdistan Regional Authority. This move is vehemently rejected by Kirkuk’s Arabs and Turkmen. The federal government is calling for calm after this provocative act, which occurred while Arab and Turkmen delegates were boycotting the […]

Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr again called on PM Nuri al-Maliki to decline to sign a Status of Forces Agreement with the US Pentagon. He pledged the support of the Sadr Movement to al-Maliki if he complied with the request. Antiwar.com says,”Thursday: 2 US Soldiers, 20 Iraqis Killed; 21 Iraqis Wounded”. McClatchy rounds up political violence in […]