End the War in Iraq - Older News

Force levels at 140,000; Senate bill continues occupation; Oil near $130; Aziz on dock without defense;

President Bush plans to keep U.S. troops levels in Iraq at 140,000 through the end of his term. Seven active-duty Army brigades have been scheduled to deploy to Iraq later this year, the Defense Department announced yesterday. The brigades that will deploy come from the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and Alaska, the 4th Infantry Division in Colorado, the 1st Infantry Division in Kansas, the 82nd Airborne Division in North Carolina, the 173rd Infantry Brigade in Germany, and the 1st Cavalry Division in Texas. All have prior experience in Iraq, some with multiple tours.

The Defense Department also announced that four Army National Guard brigades will deploy to Iraq in spring 2009 (despite the expiration of the U.N. mandate on December 31) to take part in security missions, such as base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait. The four brigades - from Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Tennessee - include about 14,000 soldiers. At least 4,080 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003.

On Tuesday, Baghdad's Sadr City looked like an armed encampment with tanks and thousands of soldiers and police officers. Helicopters fly over the area on a continual basis. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said three brigades with about 10,000 troops were involved in the deployment. He said U.S. military troops were also participating. The entire district appears to be under siege. Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb inside a minibus killed one person and wounded four others in Rustumiya district, in southeastern Baghdad and another wounded two people in the Zayouna district.

Elsewhere in Iraq, gunmen killed five U.S.-backed neighbourhood policemen in a drive-by shooting on their vehicle in Dhuluiya. A mortar round landed on a busy outdoor market in Balad Ruz, killing three people and wounding nine. A child was killed and two civilians were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Diyala province. A suicide bomber killed himself and three members of his family including his wife and sister and wounded two others when the police surrounded his house in western Falluja. A suicide bomber attacked the house of Sheikh Mutlib al-Nidawi, the head of the U.S.-backed neighbourhood police of Mandili, killing his niece and wounding him as well as two of his guards. The U.S. military said soldiers killed a senior al Qaeda leader in Samarra, north of Baghdad, and detained 20 others in different areas in Iraq on Monday and Tuesday.

The U.S. Senate will has begun debate on a multi-part supplemental package that would continue the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and prolong the war. The Senate bill would provide $165 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into 2009. War supporters continue to claim that "progress" is being made in Iraq more than five years after the invasion began. A companion House bill was defeated last week.

In related news, global stocks tumbled on Tuesday as crude oil approached $130 a barrel amid deepening worries over tight global stockpiles and as rising wholesale prices in Europe and the United States stoked inflation fears. Hedge-fund manager Boone Pickens of Texas said oil will reach $150 a barrel this year because supply isn't keeping up with demand.

Tariq Aziz, former VP underr Saddam Hussein, was back in the dock on Tuesday — but without any lawyers to defend him. Aziz (72), a Christian who served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister under Saddam, is on trial over the execution of 42 Baghdad merchants in 1992 and could be sentenced to death if convicted. The team of foreign lawyers who had agreed to defend Aziz, including French lawyer Jacques Verges, four Italian lawyers and a Lebanese-French attorney, were not granted visas for Baghdad, his Amman-based son Ziad Aziz said. Aziz, who surrendered to US forces in April 2003 shortly after the invasion, stands accused of executing businessmen for hiking food prices at a time when Iraq was under tight UN economic sanctions. Aziz's lawyers had wanted his trial to be moved to Iraqi Kurdistan in the relatively quiet north of the country or to be transferred abroad to ensure it is not influenced by the Baghdad government. posted 20 May, 2007

Monday violence; Continuing U.S. human rights violations; More vet suicides

Lt. Col. Farhan Qassim, chief of police in Suq al-Shiyoukh was killed Monday by a bomb planted in his office, in Nasiriyah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Farther south, Iraqi solders and police launched pre-dawn raids in four neighborhoods of Basra, including two Shiite militia enclaves, arresting several suspects. The Iraq army killed one person and arrested 78 others on Monday in Nineveh Province, in northern Iraq. A car bomb killed one person and wounded six others in central Tikrit. In Suwayra, southeast of Baghdad, Iraqi police recovered two bodies with gunshot wounds and signs of torture from the Tigris river. Two dead bodies were found with gunshot wounds and signs of torture in a deserted area near Rutba.

In Baghdad, a Katyusha rocket wounded five people near Hurriya district. A roadside bomb wounded three people in Doura district. Iraqi army forces surrounded a Shi'ite mosque and arrested five men and confiscated weapons in Shaab district. U.S. soldiers killed three militants after coming under attack on Sunday in Sadr City. Three bodies were found in various districts of Baghdad on Sunday.

A "leader of an al-Qaeda unit" in Mosul was arrested on Monday in a nearby province. U.S. soldiers killed an attacker placing a roadside bomb north of Baghdad and seized munitions in others districts on Sunday, the U.S. military said. US forces killed six militants and destroyed a weapons cache in an airstrike in the town of Khan Bani Saad, near Baquba. One U.S. soldier was killed and another injured on Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Salahuddin province.

Throughout Iraq, millions have had their retinas scanned and placed in databases, their DNA sampled and their homes invaded and searched - all without warrants and by foreign occupation soldiers of the U.S. Nearly 5 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes and live as refugees. Additionally, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been arrested and imprisoned without charge, including more than 500 youth currently in U.S.-run prisons.

A total of 2,500 youths under the age of 18 have been detained for periods up to a year or more since the invasion in 2003, the U.S. reported last week to the U.N.'s Committee on the Rights of the Child. Such detentions are in violation of U.N. charters and treaty obligations. The majority of the youth are males between 14-17 years old, hower children as young as 11 have been incarcerated. "It's shocking to me that the U.S. government has not figured out a way to keep children out of adult prisons," said Tina M. Foster, the executive director of the International Justice Network, said Sunday.

Literally every day now brings a report on a suicide by a veteran of the Iraq war who served multiple tours there and/or suffered from PTSD. In today's case, the soldier's wife joined him as a suicide the following day. A Houston Chronicle on Aron Andersson and Cassy Walton observes that when the former "killed himself on March 6, 2007, he became one of at least 16 Army recruiters to commit suicide nationwide since 2000. Five of those suicides occurred in Texas, including three at the Houston Recruiting Battalion, where Andersson worked after serving two tours of duty in Iraq.

The article talks about the soldier's experience in Iraq and return home: "The only thing the father knew for sure was that his son had changed. He was more frustrated, less patient and harder to talk to. 'Did he come back different? Yeah,' Bob Andersson said. 'I don't think there's anybody who goes over there and fights on the front lines who ever comes back the same.'

The Arizona Republic reported on Sunday that Sgt. Travis N. Twiggs, killed his brother and then turned the gun on himself after a 130-mile vehicle pursuit Wednesday on Interstate 8 near Stanfield. Twiggs was a U.S. Marine who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Kellee Twiggs, his wife of almost nine years. Twiggs wrote about his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder in "PTSD: The War Within," which was published in the January issue of Marine Corps Gazette. posted 19 May, 2007

Oil exports declined in April; VA official urged fewer PTSD diagnoses

Iraq's Oil Ministry says oil exports in April dropped by more than two million barrels because of fighting. The ministry says that oil exports stood at 57.06 million barrels for April, down from 59.4 million the month before. The statement Sunday blames the drop on clashes during a crackdown in the southern oil port of Basra in early April. It says the fighting damaged pipelines and forced the closing of some units.

Talks between the Ministry and Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, Anadarko and BHP Billiton have ended in Amman. The companies are to submit their final contract proposals to boost production at the country’s largest oil fields as part of a 2-year program to transfer technology, training and equipment to Iraq in an effort to increase production on six key oil fields by 700,000 barrels per day.

There is growing evidence that Iraq has the largest oil reserves in the world and that U.S. officials knew that before they planned the invasion in 2003. The Iraq News Agency published an important report by Omar Najib about the new estimates of the Iraqi oil reserves. The report states that the Saddam Hussain government estimate of Iraqi oil reserves reached 525 billion barrels before the US invasion. On April 28, 2008, the Iraqi government Kurdish deputy prime minister, Burhum Saleh, announced that Iraqi oil reserves have reached 350 billion barrels, versus the official pre-war estimate of 115 billion barrels. Announced Saudi oil reserves are 250 billion barrels. The report also mentioned that Iraqi natural gas reserves are also the largest in the world, exceeding Russian reserves (1.7 trillion cubic feet), and the reserves of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iran together.

In Baghdad, mortars slammed into the Maamil neighborhood, killing at least four people and wounding 30, most children playing outside. Bandaged girls and boys with bloodstained clothes cried as they were packed two to a bed at a hospital in Sadr City.

Four people were killed and 38 others wounded in clashes between security forces and Shi'ite militiamen in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad. A parked car bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded four others on patrol in Zayouna district in eastern Baghdad. U.S. forces killed two Iraqis who tried to attack them in northwestern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Five bodies were found in various districts of Baghdad on Saturday, police said. A member of security staff at the Turkish embassy in Baghdad was wounded Saturday when attackers opened fire near the mission with machine guns. U.S. forces captured three Iraqis and detained a dozen other men during operations in Mosul, the military said.

A psychologist who helps lead the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.

"Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," Norma Perez wrote in a March 20 e-mail to mental-health specialists and social workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Tex. Instead, she recommended that they "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."

Veterans diagnosed with PTSD can be eligible for disability compensation of up to $2,527 a month, depending on the severity of the condition, said Alison Aikele, a VA spokeswoman. Those found to have adjustment disorder generally are not offered such payments. VA staff members "really don't . . . have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD," Perez wrote.

A Rand Corp. report released in April found that repeated exposure to combat stress in Iraq and Afghanistan is causing a disproportionately high psychological toll compared with physical injuries. About 300,000 U.S. military personnel who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are suffering from PTSD or major depression, the study found. The economic cost to the United States -- including medical care, forgone productivity and lost lives through suicide -- is expected to reach $4 billion to $6 billion over two years. posted 18 May, 2007

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, met with the Iraqi prime minister Saturday during a visit to Baghdad. She also met with senior U.S. and other Iraqi leaders. Pelosi's visit comes a day after she led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding and two days after Bush's Iraq war funding request failed in the House.

Anti-war Democrats and Republicans unhappy about added domestic funding combined to kill, for now, $163 billion to continue the occupation and war through 2009. The defeat of the Iraq funding measure came on a 149-141 tally. Nearly two-thirds of the House's Democrats voted against continuing to fund the war as 132 Republicans sat out the vote in protest.

Around 1,100 people have been arrested during the first four days of a government crackdown on Al-Qaeda jihadists in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, the defence ministry said on Saturday. Security forces had recovered 3,080 pounds of explosives, 45 missiles, 263 mortar bombs and 175 assorted weapons during the latest crackdown.

One woman was killed and two children were wounded in overnight violence, medics in Sadr City said. On Friday, gunmen ambushed an Iranian Embassy convoy in Baghdad, wounding three Iranians, including two diplomats, and an Iraqi.

One person was killed and 16 were wounded Saturday in two suicide bombings near an awakening council office in the capital of Diyala province. Four awakening council members and two police officers are among the wounded.

An Australian soldier has been wounded byan IED while on patrol near An Nasiriyah on Saturday. The U.S. military reported the death of a soldier who was injured on May 1 in Baghdad.

Eight bodies, all with gunshot wounds, were found in a mass grave west of the southern city of Basra, police said. It included six people who were identified as having been kidnapped last year. posted 17 May, 2007

McCain: War through 2013; Baghdad mayor target; Olbermann: "Murderous deceit"

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Thursday he believes the Iraq war will last at least four more years but that eventually "victory" will be achieved. "By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom," McCain said in Columbus, Ohio. McCain also says any decades-long presence of U.S. troops would be aimed at maintaining stability in the region and has likened it to the U.S. military presence in Japan, South Korea and Germany.

A roadside bomb targeted Baghdad's mayor on Thursday, killing one escort and wounding seven others. The bomb attack occurred as the motorcade passed through central Baghdad, but the mayor, Hussein al-Tahan, was not in the vehicle at the time.

Also on Thursday, seven people were killed and 19 others wounded overnight Thursday from continuing fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City district. Spokesman of the Sadr movement in the central shrine city of Najaf, Salah Al-Obeidi, said continuing US air strikes against Sadr City were impeding implementation of the truce.

The Iraqi army said it arrested the manager of the Nineveh governor's office in a raid in southern Mosul. The U.S. military said it killed four militants in clashes on Wednesday afternoon in the Kadhimiya district of northwestern Baghdad.

Iraqi security forces carried out mass arrests in the main northern city of Mosul as a new crackdown against Al-Qaeda entered its second day on Thursday, officials said. About 275 people were detained overnight on top of 560 people seized since Tuesday, defence and interior ministry officials said. The US military said it was providing logistics and intelligence support for the Iraqi-led offensive.

On Wednesday's Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann's latest "Special Comment" attack on President Bush accused the President of "panoramic and murderous deceit," and of "creating" an America that "includes 'cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives,'" contending that "they are those in, or formerly in, your employ, who may yet be charged some day with war crimes." He further accused Bush, whom he referred to as having an "addled brain," of "laying waste to Iraq to achieve your political objectives" in an "insurance-scam, profiteering, morally bankrupting war." He also accused the President of forming in Iraq "an American viceroyalty, enforced by merciless mercenaries who shoot unarmed Iraqis and then evade prosecution in any country by hiding behind your skirts, sir," and charged: "Terrorism inside Iraq is your creation, Mr. Bush!" posted 15 May, 2007

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to Mosul on Wednesday to take charge of a big offensive in what the U.S. military says is insurgent's last major urban stronghold in Iraq along with National Security Advisor Mowafaq al-Rabeiy. It was unclear how long Maliki would stay, but his visit is similar to when he flew to the southern city of Basra in late March to oversee a crackdown on militias there. More than 500 men have been rounded up and placed in prison during the first week of Operation Lion's Roar. U.S. and Iraqi troops are conducting house by house searches throughout Mosul.

Fighting continued in Baghdad and elsewhere throughout Iraq. There were more than 100 casualties on Tuesday - including an American soldier - and at least 100 more on Wednesday.

Four mortar rounds into the Iraqi interior and justice ministries in central Baghdad on Thursday. The Ministry of Justice suffered heavy fire damage. A Baghdad market was also destroyed by fire overnight. There was also an explosion in the Green Zone that resulted in casualties.

Five people were killed and 22 wounded in clashes overnight in Sadr City, the two main hospitals there said. Two people were killed and six wounded in the western Shula district. Three people were killed and seven wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near the convoy of Abdul-Kareem al- Samarrai, a prominent figure in the Iraqi Islamic Party. A car bomb exploded in western Baghdad near the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party, killing two people and wounding 15. A civilian and four Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol close to the al-Shaab national stadium.

Twenty-five people were killed and dozens more wounded in a bomb attack in Fallujah. Police said they killed four insurgents who were trying to plant a bomb on the road near the city of Samarra.

An peace activist group sued President Bush in U.S. District Court in Newark on Tuesday, seeking a declaratory judgment that the war in Iraq is illegal and unconstitutional. The suit, New Jersey Peace Action et al. v. Bush, represented by the Constitutional Law Clinic at Rutgers University Law School-Newark, alleges that the war violates article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which assigns to Congress the authority to declare war.

The plaintiffs seek a declaration that the president's unilateral decision to launch a full-scale invasion without congressional approval is "capable of repetition." Askin pointed to suggestions that the Bush administration is considering some type of military action against Iran because of allegations that country is attempting to build nuclear weapons. "The Framers deliberately chose to locate the war-initiating power in the most representative branch of government," he said. "They recognized that there is always much at stake in war ... and they wanted to make the process through which the nation could become immersed in war difficult and cumbersome." posted 14 May, 2007

Clashes continue despite cease-fire; Dept. of State accused of aiding corruption

An agreement aimed at ending fighting in the Baghdad district of Sadr City is on the verge of collapse on Tuesday as U.S. troops and freedom fighters continue to launch attacks on one another. Clashes flared overnight, raising questions over how much control Moqtada al-Sadr has over some of the Mehdi Army militiamen who profess allegiance to him. There were also been intense gun battles between Iraqi security forces and militiamen on Tuesday in Shula, a Sadr stronghold in northwestern Baghdad.

Clashes in Sadr City on Tuesday killed 11 peopile and wounded 20 others, mainly in U.S. air strikes. Homes and shops were also destroyed. Gunmen killed an army officer, Brigadier-General Nibras Fadhil Abbas, in a drive-by shooting on Monday in Nisoor square in central Baghdad. A roadside bomb wounded five civilians in the Karrada district.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a bomb blast wounded two children in south-eastern Mosul. Also in Mosul, five Iraqi soldiers were killed and four more injured in a bomb blast. Gunmen abducted six university students from a minibus near Baqouba on Monday. A roadside bomb attack on a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded three others near Mahmudiya. A mortar attack killed a woman and wounded three people including a child in Nassiriya.

Two former U.S. State Department officials say the Bush administration has done little to fight corruption in Iraq. In testimony to a congressional panel Monday. Arthur Brennan briefly served as director of the State Department's Office of Accountability and Transparency in Baghdad last year. In testimony before a Democratic Policy Committee hearing, which no Republicans attended, Brennan accused the Bush administration of thwarting the efforts of his office to probe and fight corruption in Iraq. He said the administration did not aggressively pursue corruption out of concern that that could undermine its relationship with the Iraqi government.

"The Department of State's actual policy not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission, but indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government," he said. Brennan also said U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, has avoided addressing the problem. "If he does not know than he is negligent. If he does know, then he is intentionally misleading Congress and the American public." posted 13 May, 2007

While Americans celebrated Mother's Day, U.S. soldiers killed at least one Iraqi mother and her child near Mosul and there were more than 60 other casualties throughout Iraq on Sunday. Turkish warplanes bombed several border areas near the towns of Neroye, Rekan and Dahuk in northern Iraq on Sunday night.

One US soldier was killed in a roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad on Sunday night.

Mosul, inhabited by 1.4 million people, but has been sealed off from the outside world by hundreds of police and army checkpoints since the Iraqi government offensive began on Saturday. Many residents were caught by suprise and complain that they have not store up food and water for a long seige (a seige against civilian populations is a war crimes). Iraqi authorities lifted the curfew Monday, allowing people to leave their homes. Driving is still prohibited.

Monday opened with sporadic fighting in Baghdad even as representatives of Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire Monday in an effort to end seven weeks of fighting in Sadr City.

American troops fought street battles with militia in Baghdad's Sadr City, killing three people on the first full day of a deal to end fighting in the area, a military official said. US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover said "We were not the aggressors in these attacks," evenwhile saing that his occupation forces are building walls to enclose residents of the area. U.S. forces said they killed three armed men during an operation on Sunday night in Baghdad's Hurriya district. The Iraqi army said it killed eight Iraqis and arrested 16 others in Baghdad.

Elsewhere, a bomb hidden in an air conditioning unit at the main police station of Nassiriya exploded wounding two policemen. A bomb killed a member of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood security patrol in Shirqat. A roadside bomb killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded two others when it hit their patrol on Sunday in a town near Kirkuk.

The El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System was recently noted as the worst in the nation in a recent performance survey. In the run up to Memorial Day, letters are being sent from local officials to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake to formally request an independent study to assess El Paso's needs and suggest ways to improve veterans' health care

President Bush will use a six-day trip to the Middle East to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to a lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, and to meet separately with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Bush will visit Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt May 13-18, and will conduct meetings with six Muslim leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, at the Egyptian Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh. Bush will conclude his trip with remarks at the World Economic Forum at the National Congress Center while in Egypt. posted 12 May, 2007

Iraq's government on Saturday agreed a truce with the movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to halt weeks of fighting in eastern Baghdad between Shi'ite militia and security forces, officials said. The truce could end violence that has killed several hundred people, trapped the 2 million residents of Sadr City in a battle zone and prompted aid workers to warn of a humanitarian crisis. U.S. helicopters have been hovering over Sadr City 24 hours a day, hunting rocket and mortar crews. It was unclear if Maliki had ordered the U.S. military to stop offensive operations.

Gunmen have been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces nearly every night in Sadr City for seven weeks, making life a misery for the largely poor Shi'ite community there. Several thousand people have fled but most have been holed up in their homes. Asked if Sadr's supporters would adhere to the agreement, Sadr spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi said: "I expect they will. But look, the government has made promises before, but not fulfilled these promises. This may have an impact on the fighters."

Overnight, two hospitals in Sadr City said they had received the bodies of 19 people and treated 116 wounded in clashes. U.S. and Iraqi security forces claimed to have killed eight gunmen on Friday in clashes in different districts of Baghdad. On Saturday, a rocket landed in eastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding eight others. Another five people were wounded in a rocket attack in Baghdad's western al-Mansour district and a mortar round wounded three people in eastern Baghdad's Palestine street.

In Basra, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed two civilians and wounded five others. Iraqi police and soldiers detained 18 wanted men in a raid on Mahmudiya town.

In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi army commander has announced the start of the long anticipated offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq's last urban stronghold. Around 10,000 Sunni tribesmen from Mosul who are loyal to the government are taking part in the operation with an armoured brigade of Iraqi troops. Reinforcements are due to move into the area in the coming days for what is being called Operation Lion's Roar. A curfew is already in effect in the city and judges have issued a number of arrest warrants for al-Qaeda leaders.

The number of Iraqi orphans has increased dramatically in the last few years due to the war. According to official Iraqi government statistics released in December 2007, the number of Iraqi orphans had reached at least five million over the last three years - in a country of 26 million people. Most orphans live with reletives, but there are at least 26 orphanages around the country for children who have no one. Few orphans receive any type of government assistance. posted 10 May, 2007

Basra base hit; Carlyle Group leverages Bush war and fiscal policy; Investigation of Sex abuse at UK Embassy; UN unable to aid flood of refugees

Rockets slammed into a coalition military base near Basra's international airport. Two civilians contractors were killed and eight others wounded, including four coalition soldiers. Coalition forces responded with Hellfire missiles, killing six "militants", the military said.

In war-related economic news, oil surged past the $126-a-barrel mark on Friday with no end in sight. The Carlyle Group - partially owned by the Bush family and other Washington insiders - continues to reign as the largest private equity firm in the world, according to a report released Tuesday by Private Equity International magazine. In addition to taking tremendous profits from the run-up in oil prices and defense stocks since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (ordered by former Carlyle board member George W. Bush), the Carlyle group is also buying debt instruments and distressed assets - especially those created by Washington's monetary policy and the bankrupting of many Americans.

Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein ( a member of the Trilateral Commission) said yesterday that he sees a "great opportunity" for his private equity firm to buy distressed debt and assets amid a credit crunch that has slowed the buyout boom. The Carlyle Group, founded under laissez faire policies of the Reagan Administration during the late 1980's, now manages more than $81 billion in assets. Their headquarters is located at 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, just down from the White House where there is apparently a revolving door especially for Carlyle and White House employees.

A car bomb outside the Samad Restaurant in the al-Mansour district of Baghdad killed three policemen and four civilians and wounded 19 others. Another car bomb blew up in the Harthiya neighborhood of western Baghdad, wounding five people.

Also in Baghdad, a rocket hit the BBC headquarters in Baghdad in a barrage targeted at the Green Zone that apparently fell short. Damage was caused to the BBC's roof, but there were no injuries. U.S. forces say they killed 14 Iraqis in Sadr City during several clashes overnight. Hospitals in Sadr City said they had received four bodies and 51 wounded. Among the wounded were children.

The sister of Iraq's new Sunni vice president has been killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad. Mayson Ahmed Bakir al-Hashimi, sister of Tariq al-Hashimi, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen as she was leaving her home at 8am with her bodyguard. Today's killings came as Jawad al-Maliki, a Shiite hard-liner recently named as Iraq's new prime minister, was in the process of forming a new unity government aimed at stopping a wave of sectarian violence in Iraq.

Elsewhere, gunmen shot dead three U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol members near their checkpoints in Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad. Four Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their convoy in southwest Kirkuk. hree policemen and five civilians were wounded when militants fired rifles and rocket propelled grenades at a police station near the town of Balad.

An influential committee of MPs is investigating allegations of sexual harassment and abuse in the British Embassy in Baghdad. The cleaner said that a British contractor with KBR, the company hired to maintain the embassy’s premises, offered double her daily pay if she would stay the night with him. When she refused, she said, her pay was cut and she was later dismissed. KBR, after its own investigation, found the charges baseless. Several other Iraqi employees in the British Embassy in Baghdad have charged a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying exists in the facility.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Iraqis may have to go without food or health care unless foreign aid increases, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday. "We will not be able to help hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees and internally displaced if we do not receive funding for the remainder of 2008," said Antonio Guterres, U.N. high commissioner for refugees. "Without this support, the humanitarian crisis we have faced over the past two years may grow even larger," Guterres said.

Earlier this year, the UNHCR received $134 million of $261 million in requested aid. The agency says the only way to make up the difference is to secure more money from governments or cut programs. The UNHCR said it's burdened by higher prices for fuel, food and rent. The increased costs have also threatened health programs. "By August, UNHCR will not be able to cover all basic health needs of Iraqis, and many serious and chronically ill Iraqis will not be able to receive their monthly medication," it said. posted 09 May, 2007

Water shortages loom, except for the priviledge few; $162 B more for destruction? Ex-Gitmo detainee linked to bombing

Baghdad's infrastructure has been steadily destroyed since the 2003 U.S. occupation and war began. Crumbling roads, burst sewage pipes and chronic water shortages are casualties of war that get little attention amid the daily litany of gunfights, bombs and bloodletting in Iraq. As summer approaches, the city is facing an acute shortage of drinking water despite the efforts of officials like Sadiq Shuma Temperatures are set to reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit and demand for the precious commodity will outstrip supply.

However, for the 350,000 U.S. soldiers, contractors, civilians and Iraqi officials living in the Green Zone and other bases, there is plenty of water. Unlike the rest of the city residents, these priviledged few have access to airconditioning provided by 24-hour-per-day electricity, clean swimming pools and even Starbucks coffee. The U.S. Navy has drawn up plans for luxury hotels and golf to be built in the Green Zone. Marriott International has already signed a deal to build a hotel in the Green Zone, according to Navy Captain Thomas Karnowski, the chief US liaison.

For many Baghdad residents, the Green Zone has been a no-go area for years, first under Saddam and now under the occupation. "What do I care?" shrugged one, Ahmed Hussein. "I don't have electricity, I don't have fresh water and I don't have a job." Baghdad authorities say they are working hard to build big water treatment plants with sufficient capacity to slake the thirst of the whole city. But these will not come online until late 2009 at the earliest.

Seven people were killed and 20 wounded in clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City district. U.S. military said it killed 17 "militants". It said the incidents took place on Wednesday and Thursday. U.S. forces fired at least one missile from a helicopter in the Faidhailiya area in eastern Baghdad. Three civilians were killed and eight others - including a young boy - were injured. UNICEF says about 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Sadr City and that entire sections of of the district have been left nearly abandoned. Dana Graber Ladek, an Iraq specialist at the U.N. International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Amman, said that relief is urgently needed. Public distribution of food rations has stopped and food prices are rising.

Also in Baghdad, a Katyusha rocket landed in central Baghdad, killing three people and wounding six. A roadside bomb exploded near a small bus, killing one person and wounding four others in the Zayouna district of eastern Baghdad. Three people were wounded by a roadside bomb near the National Theatre. Five Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol near the al-Shaab National Stadium. The bodies of four people were found in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a policeman was seriously wounded when a bomb exploded near his home in the northern city of Mosul. A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives attacked the convoy of Mohammed Khalid, the police chief of Dhuluiya town, 45 miles north of Baghdad.

The U.S. Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives may vote next week on an additional $162.6 billion to continue the occupation and war in Iraq through the end of 2009. At a time when money is urgently needed in American communities, the new bill would waste more money on destruction ....bringing the total for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to an unimaginable $874 billion. By including FY09 funding, House leadership is effectively taking the war off the congressional agenda for the rest of this year. There is also expected to be a provision calling for troops withdrawals.

However, the House could halt funding for the war in Iraq simply by omitting any war-funding bill from the floor schedule, according to experts. "Technically, the House leadership could just run out the clock and not fund the war. In the House the majority rules, and rules very strongly. The Republicans would have very little to say about it," said Danielle Doan, director of House relations at the Heritage Foundation. One liberal activist said that the Democrats have not and will not exclude war funding from the agenda because they are afraid of the reaction from press, the Democratic leadership, and the Democratic presidential candidates. Peace groups say "not one more dollar for war". "There is no constitutional or legal obligation to bring up any bill and much less a bill to fund an illegal occupation of a foreign country that you claim to oppose. There is absolutely none," said David Swanson, an anti-war activist. "Technically, the House leadership could just run out the clock and not fund the war. They could simply do nothing. The leadership could simply choose not to bring it up and effectively it would be killed."

The U.S. military claimed on Wednesday that a Kuwaiti man - Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi - previously held in Guantanamo Bay prison for 3 1/2 years, returned to Iraq after his release and carried out a recent suicide attack. Ajmi, helped carry out a triple suicide car bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on April 26, killing seven Iraqis and wounding 28. The military said he had recently traveled to Iraq through Syria, a popular entry point for foreign fighters.

Preparing for Cholera; Escalations in Baghdad; Vet suicides could rival combat deaths

Iraqi authorities in the self-ruled northern region of Kurdistan are gearing up to face a possible cholera outbreak which last year affected nearly 4,200 people, and caused the deaths of 24 nationwide. “We have allocated 25 billion Iraqi dinars (US$20 million) to fight any cholera outbreak in Kurdistan after concerns rose last month when at least 500 patients with diarrhoea and vomiting were admitted to hospitals. So far no cases of the disease have been confirmed,” said Mohammed Sadiq from the regional Health Ministry. The last cholera outbreak was first detected on 14 August 2007 in the northern city of Kirkuk. It then spread to Sulaimaniyah, Arbil, Dohuk, Tikrit, Mosul, Diyala, Basra, Wasit, Baghdad and Anbar provinces. The hardest-hit provinces were Kirkuk with 2,309 cases, and Sulaimaniyah with 870.

An airstrike in the Hay al-Turath district, southwestern Baghdad on Wednesday by U.S. helicopeters killed three Iraqi civilians and wounded seven more as war crimes continue in Iraq. At least eight people were killed and 13 injured (another war crime) when U.S. aircraft bombed positions of the Mahdi Army militia in Sadr City in east Baghdad on Wednesday. "At least 20 people are killed on a daily basis, mostly women and children, in Sadr City," said Iraqi parliamentarian Bahaa al-Araji in calling for a halt to the fighting. "Saddam Hussein was hanged for killing 148 Iraqis, while this regime has killed more than 2,000 people," al-Araji added.

As fighting intensifies between U.S. and Iraqi forces and insurgents, Iraq's government is preparing for a wholesale exodus of thousands of people from Sadr City. Two football stadiums are on stand-by to receive residents and the government has distributed leaflets in two key districts of Sadr City, warning people to leave.

Also on Wednesday, four Iraqi guards protecting an oil pipeline were seriously wounded when a bomb exploded at a power station in Mussayab. Gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi army officer as he left his house in al-Numaniya.

The U.S. military reported Pfc. Alex Gonzalez of Mission Texas was killed and two other soldiers injured in an attack on their convoy in Fallujah on Tuesday. "This needs to stop. (Iraqis) don't want us there," his uncle Javier Rodriguez said.

The U.S. military also said it captured three suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leaders involved in roadside bomb attacks. Statements Wednesday say the suspects were detained in separate operations north of Baghdad in Kirkuk province, and in the towns of Tarmiyah and Judaidah.

Suicides by veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could well top the combat deaths in the two conflicts, said the top official of National Institute of Mental Health on Monday. Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, told reporters at an annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Washington that it was possible that "suicides and psychiatric mortality...could trump combat deaths." Insel said he based this assessment in part on figures from a recent RAND Corp. study as well as suicide rates for patients who have substance abuse problems and other complications of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of combat. Insel's comments were put in context on Tuesday during a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, when Dr. James Peake, secretary of VA, said that the number of suicide attempts by all veterans under treatment by the department could exceed an earlier official estimate of 1,000 per month. posted 07 May, 2007

Dozens of police arrested, hospital closed; Tuesday war crimes; 2 U.S. casualties; Unicef warns Iraq "at risk"

Iraqi soldiers detained dozens of policemen and closed down a hospital in Sadr City, Iraqi security officials said on Tuesday. The soldiers detained 42 policemen suspected of collaborating with "outlaws," an official in the office of Baghdad security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said. The soldiers also raided the Mohammed-Bakr Hakim hospital, arresting 35 workers, including orderlies and cleaners, and forced its closure (a human rights violation ), said hospital head Dr. Yassin al-Rikabi. "At 9 a.m. on Monday around 40 soldiers and their officers stormed the hospital. They gathered all the staff in one place. They beat some people, including me," and arrested others he said. Dozens of hospital workers demonstrated outside the Health Ministry in Baghdad on Tuesday demanding the immediate release of their colleagues.

Genocidal war crimes were documented on Tuesday as U.S. occupation forces continued to continued to rain terror down upon civilian Iraqis. At least 4 Iraqi civilians were injured overnight by U.S. airstrikes upon their homes. Iraqi security forces killed 10 "militants", arrested 131 others and seized a quantity of weapons during two days of operations in Shula district, north-western Baghdad. There were a total of more than 150 Iraqi casualties on Monday and 80+ on Tuesday.

In Baghdad, three people were killed, including a female student, and nine were wounded during clashes in Abu Dsheer. Mortars killed three and wounded 15 near the Facility Protection Services headquarters. Near the University of Baghdad central in Karrada, a Katyusha rocket injured five people, some of them students. Another rocket injured five near the Sarafiya Bridge. Mortars near Utifiya wounded 12 people. In Mosul, a roadside bomb killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded two more. Two men killed themselves accidentally when they improperly planted a roadside bomb. A policeman was kidnapped in Jalawla.

The U.S. military reported 2 new American casualties on Tuesday. One soldier was killed from wounds sustained in an attack against the soldier’s patrol in on May 6. Another was also wounded in the attack.

It is increasingly hard for Iraqi aid workers to help tens of thousands of people caught up in fighting in Baghdad, according to Unicef. The UN children's agency says over 150,000 people there are having difficulty accessing clean water, food and other essential services (a war crime). The Iraqi government says almost 1,000 people have died in recent fighting. Most of those have been civilians, and aid agencies say around 60% of them are women and children (further war crimes).

Unicef is warning that tens of thousands of people are at risk because they cannot freely move within their communities (a war crime), cut off from clean water and food supplies by snipers or by roads laced with improvised explosive devices. Fighting has severely damaged water and sewage pipes, posing serious health risks. Hospitals are reporting shortages of medical supplies, while other health facilities open and close depending on the ability of staff to turn up for work, and are often in locations too dangerous for patients to use.

Gunmen seized Ibrahim Abdullah al-Mujamai - pro-U.S. tribal chief - his wife, their daughter-in-law and a grandchild in a village in Diyala province. The kidnapping came a day after insurgents attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in the same province, killing 10 soldiers. Two outlawed PKK separatists were killed by Turkish security forces as they were trying to cross the Turkey-Iraq border in southeastern Turkey. Crude oil has reached a new high above $120.

Also on Monday, Iraqi and US-led coalition troops shot dead a gunman as he tried to penetrate the tight security Baghdad's Green Zone. Iraqi security officials said the attacker had been dressed in a military uniform and tried to get into the ministry compound but was shot at the fortified entrance. Four bodies were found in different districts of Baghdad on Monday. posted 06 May, 2007

Kurdish rebels threaten U.S.; U.S. airstrike kills family; Children suffer most

Kurdish rebels are threatening to launch suicide attacks against American interests to punish the U.S. for sharing intelligence with Turkey after Turkey bombed rebel bases. Peritan Derseem, a senior official of the PKK's Iranian wing, PEJAK, said "We have changed our stand toward the United States government and we are standing against them now," she said. "Maybe some day ... individual combatants might launch suicide attacks inside Iraq and Turkey, and even against American interests." Derseem claimed that her group was acting independently from the main branch of the PKK.

A pre-dawn U.S. air strike in Baghdad's Amil district (a war crime) on Monday killed five persons - including a family of a man, his wife and their child - and wounded 12 others. The attack totally destroyed an apartment and caused damages to several nearby buildings. The U.S. military apparently thinks that is has unlimited ability to excercise power in civilian areas, in contravention of the Geneva Conventions on war. The U.S. military said U.S. forces killed nine "insurgents" during battles in the Sadr City and Mansur districts of Baghdad late Sunday and early Monday. The Sadr City Hospital reported receiving six bodies, including three children, and 41 wounded people overnight.

The Iraqi army claimed it killed six militants and detained 149 others in separate incidents across the country over the past 24 hours. In Mosul, gunmen stormed an apartment on Monday and shot dead three women and wounded two others. A roadside bomb blast killed one policeman and wounded five others when it hit their patrol in central Kirkuk. The Iranian Coast Guard shot dead two Iraqi fishermen and wounded another on Sunday in the Shatt al-Arab waterway in southern Iraq.

The number of Iraqi orphans increased in the last few years due to the war and military occupation of Iraq. According to official Iraqi government statistics released in December 2007, the number of Iraqi orphans had reached at least five million over the last three years. There are an estimated 26 orphanages located around Iraq, including eith in Baghdad, according to Alive in Baghdad. posted 05 May, 2007

Talibani's wife targeted; "No evidence" of Iran's support; Defense firms skirt taxes

A bomb hit a motorcade carrying Iraq's first lady through Baghdad on Sunday, as she was headed to a cultural festival outside of the Green Zone. The motorcade bombing in Baghdad's Karrada district injured four of Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed's bodyguards but left her unharmed, according to the office of her husband, President Jalal Talabani.

Also in Baghdad, Two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in al-Maamoun neighbourhood in western Baghdad, killing a traffic policeman and a civilian and wounding eight people, including four traffic police. The U.S. continued airstrikes against the civilian population of the Sadr City district on Sunday. The U.S. military said it killed nine Iraqis in helicopter strikes overnight, where battles have raged between occupation forces and Iraqi freedom fighters. Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad said he was unsure of the number of civilian casualties from the operations. Police in Sadr City said 11 people had been killed and 27 wounded in overnight fighting. The dead included three teenage boys and a woman, police said. Sources at Sadr City's two hospitals said they had received four dead, none of who were women or children.

A roadside bomb struck the office of the citizen patrol unit in Baquba on Sunday, killing one of its members and wounding another civilian. Two women were killed by blasts from bombs planted near a policeman's house in a village near Balad.

In Mosul, gunmen shot dead a civilian man in a driveby. Another man was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle and police found the body of a decapitated man wearing a military uniform in the al-Hirmat neighbourhood. Iraqi army soldiers shot and killed a suicide car bomber, attempting an attack on their base in Mosul on Saturday, police said. A soldier was wounded in the incident.

Iraq said on Sunday it has no evidence that Iran was supplying militias engaged in fierce street fighting with security forces in Baghdad. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said there was no "hard evidence" of involvement by the neighbouring Shiite government of Iran in backing Shiite militiamen in the embattled country. Asked about US reports that weapons captured from Shiite fighters bore 2008 markings suggesting Iranian involvement, Dabbagh said: "We don't have that kind of evidence... If there is hard evidence we will defend the country." Iran, whose ties with Washington have been severed since 1980, denies allegations by Bush Administration officials that it is arming and training Shiite militia groups. Iran actually supports the Iraqi government in its fight against militants, the head of a delegation from Iraq's ruling Shi'ite alliance said on Saturday after returning from a visit to Tehran.

Offshore shell firms have helped U.S. defense firms skirt the payment of millions of dollars in taxes while receiving lucrative contracts from the public treasury. Virginia-based MPRI, founded by retired senior military leaders who won a $400 million contract to train police in Iraq and other hotspots, set up shells companies in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Former Halliburton subsidiary KBR avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll taxes by hiring employees through a Cayman Island shell company. "There is nothing wrong with tax avoidance, particularly for work that is done outside the United States," said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council, a trade association of companies that perform government work.

MPRI remains one of the Pentagon's most favored contractors. The company has maintained such close ties with the US armed forces that it once ran the ROTC training programs in more than 200 universities, and it still recruits soldiers for the US military. In 2004, MPRI joined with KBR and two other federal contractors to form Civilian Police International, a joint venture that successfully bid on a $1.6 billion State Department contract to deploy US peacekeepers around the world. "We know that it is a practice that goes on," said Jeffrey Parsons, director of contracting for the Army Material Command. "I would not say anyone encourages it, but there are no rules or pratices that would prohibit it." Perhaps it's time Congress strengthened the federal The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) Act to include the U.S. military and their contractors. posted 04 May, 2007

More Stop-loss; 7 Americans dead; Intense fighting in Sadr City; Mosul battle coming; Bush asks Congress for $178 Billion more for war

Last year’s surge of five combat brigades into Iraq helped drive a 43-percent increase in soldiers being barred from leaving the service under stop-loss orders, and Army leaders predict the policy will remain in place at least through next year. More than 12,230 soldiers are under stop-loss orders, compared to 8,540 in May 2007. Under stop-loss policies, active-duty soldiers within 90 days of retirement or obligated service are barred from leaving the Army if they are in units alerted for deployment. Reservists and National Guard members are barred from leaving if their units have been alerted for mobilization.

The U.S. military reported on Saturday that Four U.S. Marines were killed on Friday in Anbar province when they drove over a roadside bomb. A U.S. soldier died from wounds sustained when an IED struck his vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad on Friday. Also, the wife of a US contractor reported his death from an IED.

Intense fighting continues into Saturday in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. A U.S. airstrike hit and damaged the al-Sadr hospital (a war crime), wounding 20 people including women and children, and incinerating or damaging 11 ambulances. Dr. Ali Bustan al-Fartusee, director general of Baghdad's health directorate, told AP that 23 civilians were injured in air strike. He said no patients in the hospital were hurt, but that some of the wounded included civilians outside on their way to visit patients in the hospital and around 17 ambulances were damaged. Three Iraq boys were killed in the airstrike as they were sifting through trash, looking for empty soda cans, said a 10-year-old boy wounded in the attack.

The military reported that U.S. and Iraqi forces said they killed 14 Iraqis in battles overnight. A roadside bomb killed a civilian and wounded eight other people, including six traffic policemen, when it exploded near a traffic patrol in Jamiaa district, western Baghdad.

Elsehwere in Iraq, a mortar killed one child and wounded two other children in Shirqat. In Mosul, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, wounding three policemen. roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding four others on the outskirts of Tikrit. In central Kirkuk, a roadside bomb wounded three policemen when it struck their patrol.

Iraqi and U.S. forces are massing troops for an imminent attack on the northern city of Mosul, the interior minister said. The minister Jawad al-Bolani said the government has deployed “elite units” in the city, home to nearly three million people . The battle to overtake Mosul is billed as the ‘last’ major offensive Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki intends to launch to bring the country under control. Bolani said the troops sent to calm down Basra were being redeployed in Mosul. Analysts say the battle for Mosul is expected to be one of the bloodiest since the 2003 U.S. invasion. Mosul is a mixed city. Though predominantly Sunni Arab, it holds sizeable communities of Kurds, Christians, Shebeks and Yezidis.

President Bush is requested $70 billion in funding that would pay for Iraq operations into the next presidency, in addition to $108 billion in his current financing of the war request. If Congress approves the additional money for this year and next, it will bring the total allocation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to over $800 billion -- and make each member an accomplice to the cotinued occupation, U.N. violations and war crimes. posted 03 May, 2007

Turkish airstrikes; Gen. Sanchez: "Gross Incompetence"; U.S. dockworkers strike

Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq overnight, in the latest air raid in the region since December. Speaking in northern Iraq, PKK spokesman Ahmed Danis said the rebels had suffered no losses in the strikes but expressed concern that the Turks and the Iranians were increasing their cooperation to try and snuff the rebels out. The White House has endorsed Turkey's airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.

Oil futures climbed back above $113 per barrel on Friday. KBR, best known for its contracts in Iraq, posted net income of $98 million, or 58 cents a share, up from $28 million, or 17 cents a share, a year earlier. Government and infrastructure income rose 14% as strength from Iraq-related activities and several other projects said Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Utt.

Two suicide bomb attacks in Balad Ruz, on Thursday killed 30 people and wounded 65 others. U.S. forces said they killed two gunmen in two separate air strikes in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad on Thursday. Seven people were killed and nine others were wounded in clashes overnight between U.S. forces and Mehdi army fighters in Sadr City.

Three Sadrist deputies called a news conference in the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound in Baghdad on Thursday, at which they denounced Mr Maliki and his government. They held up pictures of dead Iraqi civilians they said were killed by government forces, backed by US troops, in Sadr City and called Nouri al-Maliki "depraved" for siding with the U.S.

On Friday, clashes erupted between U.S. forces and Mehdi army militants in al-Amil district in south-western Baghdad. Four fighters were killed and 12 wounded. The U.S. military said a Predator aerial drone crashed in southern Iraq on Thursday. Mechanical failure was suspected.

In a new memoir set to be published May 6, the former commander of US forces in Iraq provides new intimate details of the goings-on at high levels of the Bush Administration in the first year of the Iraq war. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez's book, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story, accuses the Bush Administration of "gross incomptence." Sanchez commanded the US military in Iraq from 2003-2004. The three-star general was relieved of his commander in 2004 following the Abu Ghraib scandal, and in 2005, was told his career was over and he wouldn't be promoted to a fourth star. In a memo acquired by the ACLU through a freedom of information act request, Sanchez authorized techniques to be used against prisoners which included "environmental manipulation," such as heating or cooling a room or using an "unpleasant smell," isolating prisoners, and disrupting sleep patterns.

Meanwhile in the U.S. on Thursday, 25,000 dock workers went on strike and closed 29 port facilities in an end the war protest. Cranes and forklifts stood still from Seattle to San Diego on Thursday, and ships were stalled at sea as workers held rallies up and down the coast to blame the war for distracting public attention and money from domestic needs like health care and education. "We're loyal to America, and we won't stand by while our country, our troops and our economy are being destroyed by a war that's bankrupting us to the tune of $3 trillion," the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Bob McEllrath, said in a written statement. "It's time to stand up, and we're doing our part today."

In Connecticut, 85 teens at Conard High School walked out of classes in protest of the Iraq War. "I think a lot of people probably don't care about the war, but that's what we're trying to do now -- make our country aware that the youth, who is eventually going to run this country, does care about the war and our relationships with other countries," said Deptula, 16, as she began the two-mile trek to West Hartford Town Hall, where students held an outdoor protest rally. posted 02 May, 2007

Fierce fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City fuelled the bloodshed in April, with at least 1,073 people killed across Iraq and overnight clashes in Sadr City between US forces and Shiite militiamen left another 11 people dead, including two children and 76 more wounded. Throughout Iraq, there were more than 300 casualties on Thursday.

One U.S. soldier was killed on Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol in Nineveh province, the U.S. military said. Marine Sgt. Merlin German, 22 of Manhattan, N.Y., died April 11 at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio. He died from wounds received in 2005 in Anbar province.

Three soldiers were injured and 9 Iraqis were killed and another 26 were injured when a car bomb was detonated as a U.S. patrol went by in Baghdad's Camp Sara district on Thursday. U.S. forces said they killed 16 more fighters in gunfights, air strikes and tank battles beginning on Wednesday afternoon and running through the night. A mortar shell landed on the al-Salhiya residential compound in central Baghdad, wounding three people.

Elsewhere, a booby-trapped bicycle targeting a U.S.-backed Sunni neighbourhood patrol in Hawi Jah, about 200 km north of Baghdad, wounding two members of the patrol and a child. A female suicide bomber killed 35 people and wounded 76 others in Balad Ruz. After the bomber struck a wedding convoy, another suicide bomber targeted the first responders who arrived on the scene. In Duluiya, two Arab nationals blew themselves up during a raid. Two policemen were injured during the blasts. Also, two mass graves were found. A roadside in Abu Khames killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded four others. An Iraqi BBC correspondent was arrested for unknown reasons in Karbala.

The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the “Mission Accomplished” banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq. Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq. Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,061 U.S. service members. Only the Vietnam War (August 1964 to January 1973), the war in Afghanistan (October 2001 to present) and the Revolutionary War (July 1776 to April 1783) have engaged America longer.

A delegation from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling bloc has gone to Iran to press Tehran to stop backing Shi'ite militiamen, a senior member of parliament from the bloc said on Thursday. "The UIA has decided to send a delegation to press the Iranian government to stop financing and supporting the armed groups," said Sami al-Askari, referring to the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes the main Shi'ite parties supporting Maliki. "They left yesterday for Iran." Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, another senior UIA member of parliament, said the delegation was sent after the "serious deterioration that has recently taken place in security in Iraq". "The delegation will ask the government of Iran to continue to support the government of Maliki and continue to support stability in Iraq," he said, although he would not confirm that it would raise the issue of Iranian support for militias. posted 01 May, 2007

>>German Deployment During Iraq War Illegal - Top Court
Germany's highest court ruled Wednesday that the decision to deploy German crews on NATO surveillance flights over Turkey during the Iraq war was illegal........[more ]
posted 07 May 2008

>>Texan's court-martial in Iraqi's death under way
An Army sergeant fatally shot a severely wounded and unarmed Iraqi insurgent after ordering a medic to suffocate him and then tried to cover up the crime, a military prosecutor said Monday as the soldier's court-martial began.......[more ]
posted 28 April 2008

>>Court-martial for soldier accused of shooting unarmed Iraqi
A platoon sergeant accused of shooting an unarmed Iraqi and then ordering another U.S. soldier to "finish him" faces a court martial this week for premeditated murder......[more ]
posted 20 April 2008

>>Naval officer chooses discharge rather than go to Iraq
Two months ago, Weiner, 27, forfeited her Navy career after seven years on active and reserve duty, during which she rose to the rank of lieutenant......[more ]
posted 19 April 2008

>>Antiwar Soldier is Promoted to Sargeant
Sergeant Ronn Cantu -- who signed a petition to Congress demanding the U.S. withdraw from Iraq and gave interviews to the news shows "60 Minutes" and "Democracy Now!", as well as IPS detailing his opposition -- has seen his rank upgraded to staff sergeant......[more ]
posted 19 April 2008

>>War in Iraq Wrong for 62% of Americans
Many adults in the United States regret their government’s decision to launch the coalition effort, according to a poll by CBS News and the New York Times. 62 per cent of respondents think the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq......[more ]
posted 13 April 2008

>>Military Mom Says She Was Brutally Raped in Iraq
Yet another woman has come forward saying she was brutally raped in Iraq while working for the U.S. contractor Kellogg Brown Root (KBR)......[more ]
posted 09 April 2008