Arab World

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the chances that a Status of Forces Agreement will be concluded between Baghdad and Washington have declined substantially. The intention is now to sign a memorandum of understanding instead of a SOFA, according to Shaikh Jalal al-Din Saghir, an MP, a member of the Policy Council for National Security and […]

The statements of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and National Security Counsellor Muwaffaq Rubaie about the need for a timetable for US troop withdrawal may have an unexpected and significant impact on the US presidential campaign. On Tuesday, after consultations with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Najaf, Rubaie held a news conference. His remarks suggested that […]

A US observer with experience on the ground in Iraq writes with regard my link on Sunday to a piece about Monsanto and hooking Iraqi farmers on genetically modified seeds: The small report about Bremer dictating that Iraqi farmers cannot use their seed from year to year is utter nonsense. It is not true. Iraqi […]

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Bush Friday by video conference that the US could not use Iraqi territory or airspace to attack neighboring Iran. He basically told Bush to suck it up and negotiate with Ahmadinejad. It is amazing what $70 billion a year in petroleum revenue will do for a prime minister’s self-esteem. […]

Your Fourth of July is blood for oil. My Fourth of July is the pure sunbeam of peace. Yours is the imperial presidency and “so what?” to public opinion. Mine is “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” Yours is profiling and discrimination. Mine is “all men are endowed by their Creator […]

The Sadr Movement is forging ahead with plans to create an elite special operations corps within the Mahdi Army, with the mission of hitting US troops. Iraq has convinced the United States to drop the demand that private American security guards operating in Iraq be granted immunity from prosecution for wrongdoing in Iraqi courts. Such […]

A guerrilla group launched a campaign of assassination against judges in Baghdad on Monday, setting off five bombs, each targeting a judge in a different part of the city; they missed four of the judges but injured the fifth. Details below. A bomb was set off in downtown Mosul to the north, killing 1 and […]

Aljazeera English reports on the deals the oil majors are doing in Iraq: And, Tom Engelhardt reviews the troop escalation or “surge” in Iraq and offers some unconventional wisdom.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said that the al-Maliki government is beginning to think about the “time horizon” of the US troop presence in Iraq. That terminology is awfully close to a request for a timetable for troop withdrawal. PM al-Maliki has repeatedly said that Iraqi militias and army can handle the security problems themselves […]