Middle East

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 […]

Madhavi Bhasin writes in an IC Guest Editorial: The most consistent answer to the differently phrased generic query, “When will the U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq?” is “Will be determined by the situation on the ground and U.S. military’s assessment of it.” Is it really so? Is the U.S. presence in Iraq contingent upon the […]

The al-Maliki government has just launched another of its military offensives against guerrillas, this time in Baquba, the capital of Diyala Province. I am skeptical about these campaigns. They are announced well in advance, allowing the guerrillas to go underground or relocate. Then in Mosul and now in Baquba the campaigns don’t appear to involve […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that four female suicide bombers killed or wounded 350 persons on Monday. Late reports give 61 as the number of those killed. Al-Hayat says the bombings reminded Iraqis of the bad old days when this level of destruction was a common, almost daily occurrence. The bombing of an enormous crowd of […]

Guerrillas in Iraq set off three bombs one after another on Monday morning, targeting Shiite pilgrims on their way to the Shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim in Kadhimiya, north Baghdad, to commemorate his death. They killed at least 11 persons and wounded some 33. The bombings on this Shiite holy day are an unwelcome reminder […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that a controversy is raging in the Iraqi parliament about the veto exercised by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani against a bill passed last week enabling elections in the fall. MP and former court judge Wael Abd al-Latif of the State Party charged that the veto was “unconstitutional.” He said that when […]

Vincent Bugliosi’s opening statements during the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the constitutional limits of executive power. He argues that since Bush took the country to war against Iraq on false pretenses and that therefore he is guilty of tens of thousands of counts of murder.