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31 December, 2007

Iraqi Refugees Turn To Sex Trade In Syria
By Alistair Lyon

The idea repels many of the 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria, but the struggle to make ends meet has forced some to share tiny apartments with other families in the slums of Damascus, put their children out to work or marry off teenaged daughters. Sometimes such early marriages are simply a cover for prostitution as young brides are swiftly trafficked, according to Hana Ibrahim, head of the Iraqi Women's Will Association

30 December, 2007

Iraq Progresses To Some Of Its Worst
By Dahr Jamail

Despite all the claims of improvements, 2007 has been the worst year yet in Iraq

28 December, 2007

Saddam Provided More Food Than The U.S.
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr Jamail

The Iraqi government announcement that monthly food rations will be cut by half has left many Iraqis asking how they can survive.The government also wants to reduce the number of people depending on the rationing system by five million by June 2008

21 December, 2007

Iraq: Who Are The Insurgents?
By Dahr Jamail

"Suppose Iraq invaded America. And an Iraqi soldier was on a tank passing through an American street, waving his gun at the people, threatening them, raiding and trashing houses. Would you accept that? This is why no Iraqi can accept occupation, and don’t be surprised by their reactions," says "The Imam," a young man from a mixed Sunni-Shia family, as he explains the genesis of the insurgency in Iraq and its exponential growth

Iraq: Outsourcing The War
By Chris Gelken

Corporate government leads to corporate war and leads to corporate abuse

19 December, 2007

US Backs Turkish Military
Attacks On Northern Iraq

By Peter Symonds

With the backing and assistance of the Bush administration, the Turkish military has launched two attacks in the past three days on Kurdish villages in northern Iraq. While targetted against the guerrilla forces of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the operations are threatening to provoke a broader conflict involving Turkey and Iraq

Iraq: Looking To Security From Paper Police
By Ali al-Fadhily

In a country with no security and no jobs, just about anyone can work as a policeman. "To survive in Iraq under U.S. occupation, there are only two jobs; police and garbage collection," Baghdad journalist Mohammad al-Dulaymi told IPS. "Unemployment is leading many Iraqis to join the security forces despite the risk involved."

18 December, 2007

Mirage Of Improvement In Iraq
By Dahr Jamail

Iraq’s population at the time of the US invasion in March 2003 was roughly 27 million, and today it is approximately 23 million. Elementary arithmetic indicates that currently over half the population of Iraq are either refugees, in need of emergency aid, wounded, or dead

15 December, 2007

Iraq Does Exist
By Ghali Hassan

In a recent interview ("Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore") with the self-described ‘leftists’ blogger Mick Whitney, Nir Rosen made untruthful and unsubstantiated statements regarding the situation on the ground in Iraq and the Occupation of that country by U.S. forces and their collaborators

Not Even The Hajj Is Free Of Corruption
By Ali al-Fadhily

Many Iraqis are angry that the government seems to be picking favourites for the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca

06 December, 2007

Refugees Caught Between
Deportation And Death Threats

By Ali al-Fadhily

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis driven out of their country by violence are now faced with detention abroad, or a homecoming to death threats.More than two million Iraqis, in a population of about 25 million, have taken refuge in many countries. Only a few have won official status as refugees. Most refugees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and many other countries stay on as illegal residents, facing threats of deportation and imprisonment

03 December, 2007

Iraq: Government Fragments Further
By Ali al-Fadhily

As sectarian tensions escalate politically, a new fissure is appearing within the already fragmented Iraqi government

Iraq As A Pentagon Construction Site
By Tom Engelhardt

When, in the future, you read in the papers about administration plans to withdraw American forces to bases "outside of Iraqi urban areas," note that there will continue to be a major base in the heart of the Iraqi capital for who knows how long to come. As the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler put it, the 21-building compound "is viewed by some officials as a key element of building a sustainable, long-term diplomatic presence in Baghdad." Presence, yes, but diplomatic?

30 November, 2007

Why American Troops Can't Go Home
By Michael Schwartz

As long as that government is determined to install a friendly, anti-Iranian regime in Baghdad, one that is hostile to "foreigners," including all jihadists, but welcomes an ongoing American military presence as well as multinational development of Iraqi oil, the American armed forces aren't going anywhere, not for a long, long time; and no relative lull in the fighting -- temporary or not -- will change that reality. This is the Catch-22 of Bush administration policy in Iraq

A Tenuous 'Peace' In Al-Anbar
By Ali al-Fadhily

A semblance of calm belies an undercurrent of violence, detentions and fear across Iraq’s volatile al-Anbar province

29 November, 2007

The Iraqi Miracle: From Invasion To “Partnership”
By James Rothenberg

The morning newspaper carries an Associated Press story detailing the signing by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki of a “declaration of principles” between the two countries, which, for those still interested in the real reason we invaded Iraq, amounts to a full confession. Not in front of the International Criminal Court (that’s not for us) but mainstreamed, normalized, now fit to print

Iraq :'Internationally Sponsored Genocide'
By Felicity Arbuthnot

If anyone treated a domestic or farm animal in the West, as the Iraqis have been treated for over seventeen years: denied a proper diet, medication, clean water, a safe environment, that person would end up in Court and likely in prison

28 November, 2007

US Signs Deal For Long-Term Occupation Of Iraq
By Jerry White

President Bush and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki signed an agreement Monday paving the way for the long-term occupation of the Middle Eastern country and its transformation into a semi-colonial protectorate of the US.The “Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship” outlines plans for the establishment of permanent US military bases in Iraq to suppress internal opposition to the US-installed regime and protect US economic and political interests throughout the region. It also provides for preferential treatment for US energy conglomerates and investors to exploit Iraq’s newly opened up oil resources

Detentions Escalate In Diwaniyah
By Ali al-Fadhily

Detentions have become commonplace in Iraq, but now more than ever before people are being detained after being accused of membership in "militias supported by Iran."

27 November, 2007

Iraq Has Only Militants, No Civilians
By Dahr Jamail

From the beginning of the American occupation in Iraq, air strikes and attacks by the U.S. military have only killed “militants,” “criminals,” “suspected insurgents,” “IED [Improvised Explosive Device] emplacers,” “anti-American fighters,” “terrorists,” “military age males,” “armed men,” “extremists,” or “al-Qaeda.”The pattern for reporting on such attacks has remained the same from the early years of the occupation to today

26 November, 2007

Iraq’s Sovereignty Revisited
By Ghali Hassan

The current state of Iraq is a U.S.-installed colonial dictatorship. The puppet government is a façade legitimising the Occupation and covering-up its murderous crimes against the Iraqi people. There is no sovereignty when 175,000 U.S. troops and some 180,000 foreign mercenaries rampaging through the streets of Iraqi towns and cities and killing Iraqis with impunity. So, what “sovereignty” Mr. Bush was talking about?

23 November, 2007

Executions Not Leading To Reconciliation
By Ali al-Fadhily

The executions of former regime officials are creating greater division, rather than reconciliation, among Iraqis. Special courts formed by the American occupation authorities in Iraq are issuing death sentences -- like that carried out on former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, on 30 December 2006 -- on what many Iraqis are interpreting as a political basis

22 November, 2007

Iraq: Infighting Increases Instability
By Ali al-Fadhily

Increasing conflict and finger pointing between leading Shi'ite political blocs are heightening instability in war-torn Iraq

20 November, 2007

Fallujah Now Under A Different Kind Of Siege
By Ali al-Fadhily

Three years after a devastating U.S.-led siege of the city, residents of Fallujah continue to struggle with a shattered economy, infrastructure, and lack of mobility

Radioactive Ammunition Fired In Middle East
May Claim More Lives Than Hiroshima And Nagasaki

By Sherwood Ross

By firing radioactive ammunition, the U.S., U.K., and Israel may have triggered a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East that, over time, will prove deadlier than the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan

17 November, 2007

Jordan’s Iraqi Social Revolution Is Politically-Loaded
By Dr Marwan Asmar

The social revolution in the country has been building up for the last 17 years, today the Iraqi communities in Jordan have started to build roots, and it would be difficult for—apart from the fact they may not personally want to—to go back their traditional home place which they have been alienated from, firstly by the former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent Iraqi governments in the wake of the American occupation of the country

16 November, 2007

Two Months After Deadly Shooting, No Charges
Against Blackwater Mercenaries

By Kate Randall

Two months after the deadly September 16 shooting in Baghdad by contractors of Blackwater Worldwide, no charges have been filed against any of the mercenaries involved. The incident left 17 civilians dead and as many as 27 wounded

15 November, 2007

Corruption Adds To Baquba's Problems
By Ahmed Ali

Facing violence, unemployment and poverty, the capital city of Iraq's volatile Diyala province now finds itself confronting also corruption

14 November, 2007

Outrage In A Time Of Apathy
By Aaron Glantz

Unlike most U.S. journalists who went to Iraq to cover a war, Dahr Jamail went to try to stop it. Once in Iraq, Jamail set about reporting the stories of regular Iraqi people. He spent months in Iraq's hospitals, morgues and mosques. His journalism covers some of the most mundane, but important, aspects of the U.S. occupation -- like gas lines, checkpoints, and bombed out telephone switching stations. His stories appeared in numerous outlets around the world

13 November, 2007

Oil-Protection Base Being Built In Iraq
By Patrick Martin

The US Navy, with the assistance of British and Australian commandos, is building a permanent base to guard two oil-export platforms in Iraqi waters at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, according to a report Monday in the Wall Street Journal

A Tale Of One City, Now Two
By Ali al-Fadhily

The separation of religious groups in the face of sectarian violence has brought some semblance of relative calm to Baghdad. But many Iraqis see this as the uncertain consequence of a divide and rule policy

06 November, 2007

Millions Trapped In Their Own Country
By Ahmed Ali

At least five million Iraqis have fled their homes due to the violence under the U.S.-led occupation, but half of them are unable to leave the country, according to well-informed estimates.According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are more than 4.4 million displaced Iraqis, an estimate that many workers among refugees find conservative

Targeting Iraqis As "Big Game"
By Nick Turse

From the commander-in-chief to low-ranking snipers, a language of dehumanization that includes the idea of hunting humans as if they were animals has crept into our world -- unnoticed and unnoted in the mainstream media. Perhaps a few linguistics professors or other social scientists might like to step into the breach and offer their views on the subject -- unless, of course, they've already been mustered into those Human Terrain Teams

05 November, 2007

Humanitarian Tsunami Sweeping Across Iraq
By Haroon Siddiqui

Up to 1.2 million of them, out of a population of 21 million, may have been killed since 2003. And one in five Iraqis has been displaced. Two million, maybe more, have fled to neighbouring nations, and another 2.2 million have been displaced internally. Of the latter, the world knows the least, and for a reason

04 November, 2007

Britain In The Collective Memory Of Iraq
By Marwan Asmar

Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I used to think about Britain regularly, having lived there in the 1970s and 1980s. After the invasion and the straddling of British and American troops on Iraqi soil, I consciously tried to blot the UK out of my collective memory

31 October, 2007

A Family Tree
By Layla Anwar

I console myself with the thought that I, at least, have the memory of a Tree. Something to give me strength, verticality, and a sense of belonging even if it is on some fictional, imaginary level...I have serious doubts that the increasing number of Iraqi orphans can console themselves with that same thought

30 October, 2007

When Blackwater Kills,No Questions Asked
By Ali al-Fadhily

The Iraqi investigators said Blackwater should be expelled from the country, and demanded eight million dollars compensation for the family of each victim. Officials decided last week to establish a committee to find ways to repeal a 2004 directive issued by L. Paul Bremer, head of the former U.S. occupation government in Iraq, which placed private security companies outside Iraqi law, making them immune to prosecution. Many Iraqis are angry that Blackwater enjoys special rights

The Catastrophic Military Occupation Of Iraq
Is Rarely Described Accurately In The U.S. Media

By Kevin Zeese & Dahr Jamail

An Interview with independent journalist Dahr Jamail “The bogus idea that if the U.S. leaves things will worsen is both inherently racist and ignorant.”

25 October, 2007

Turkey Begins Bombing In Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn
in the Qandil mountains, Iraq

Turkey used its helicopters and artillery to attack Kurdish guerrillas inside northern Iraq yesterday as the Turkish army massed just north of the border. The helicopter gunships penetrated three miles into Iraqi territory and warplanes targeted mountain paths used by rebels entering Turkey

Iraqi Refugees Turn To prostitution
By Omar Sinan

This club in northwest Damascus represents one of the most troubling aspects of the Iraqi refugee crisis — Iraqi women and girls who are turning to prostitution to survive in countries that have taken them in but won't let them or their families work at most other jobs

Ill-Equipped Soldiers Opt For "Search And Avoid"
By Dahr Jamail

Iraq war veterans now stationed at a base here say that morale among U.S. soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed "search and avoid" missions

23 October, 2007

Bloggers Without Borders...
By Baghdad Burning

By the time we had reentered the Syrian border and were headed back to the cab ready to take us into Kameshli, I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily… in the newspapers… hear about them on TV. I hear about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them

22 October, 2007

It’s The Oil
By Jim Holt

Iraq is ‘unwinnable’, a ‘quagmire’, a ‘fiasco’: so goes the received opinion. But there is good reason to think that, from the Bush-Cheney perspective, it is none of these things. Indeed, the US may be ‘stuck’ precisely where Bush et al want it to be, which is why there is no ‘exit strategy’

US Raid On Baghdad’s Sadr City Leaves
Many Dead And Wounded

By Bill Van Auken

A violent US assault on Baghdad’s Sadr City Sunday left many people dead—49 according to the military’s own count—and scores more wounded. The foray into the crowded and impoverished Shia neighborhood, home to an estimated 3 million people, was launched before dawn and quickly escalated as American forces called in air strikes that left houses, stores and cars destroyed and in flames

19 October, 2007

Assassination Of Sheikh Shakes US Claims
By Ali al-Fadhily

Resistance to occupation seems to have risen after the assassination last month of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, head of the al-Bu Risha tribe. Abu Risha had begun to cooperate actively with U.S. forces

17 October, 2007

The Iraqi Genocide
By Paul Craig Roberts

One can only marvel at the insouciance of the US Congress to the current Iraqi Genocide while condemning Turkey for one that happened 90 years ago

The Forgotten Refugees Of The U.S. War On Iraq
By Lee Sustar

More refugees than Darfur. A humanitarian disaster. The largest displaced population in the Middle East since the mass expulsion of Palestinians with the formation of Israel in 1948. That’s the reality of the Iraqi refugee crisis--denied by the U.S. government and routinely ignored in the mainstream media

15 October, 2007

US Air Strikes Kill 34 Iraqis
By Naomi Spencer

On October 11, US forces killed 34 Iraqis during air strikes on a home northwest of Baghdad. The military has acknowledged that at least 15 among the dead were civilians, including nine children, making the civilian toll one of the largest admitted by US forces since the 2003 invasion

'Swimming Up The Tigris'
By Felicity Arbuthnot

Book Review: 'Swimming Up The Tigris' By Barbara Nimri Aziz."Barbara Nimri Aziz opens many gates, to unique, astute and eye misting, insights. Every American and British politician should read this book and sink to their knees in shame."

12 October, 2007

Divide And Rule
By Galal Nassar

US plans to partition Iraq have been on the back burner for almost two decades. Now the future of the Arab world for generations to come hangs on whether or not they succeed

2008: Safari Tourism In Iraq
By Pablo Ouziel

I wonder if the publicised incident of Blackwater USA will serve as the wakeup call for western nations to realise what we have become, or it will pave the way towards an eventual Iraqi Safari Park for those westerners who flourish in capitalism to indulge themselves in the 'pleasure' of shooting Iraqi civilians

10 October, 2007

Private Contractors Kill Two Iraqi Women
By Kate Randall

Two Iraqi women were killed Tuesday afternoon when their vehicle was fired on by a private security convoy in central Baghdad. The guards were from the Unity Resources Group, an Australian-owned company

08 October, 2007

Iraq's National Liberation Front
By Ibrahim Ebeid & Husayn Al-Kurdi

On September 22 Iraqi Resistance groups convened a Unification Congress in a liberated area of Baghdad. The Congress resolved to unite all the groups who were in attendance on the basis of achieving the total liberation of Iraq, however long that may take. The Congress also decided that membership in the unified Resistance Front would be open to other groups or fighters wishing to join. A Supreme Command of the Jihad and Liberation Struggle was created and Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Ba'ath Secretary-general and President of Iraq, was elected the Supreme Commander of the Front

Iraqi Probe Finds Blackwater Mercenaries Fired
Without Provocation In Baghdad Massacre

By Kate Randall

An official Iraqi investigation into the deadly shooting involving Blackwater USA found that the security contractors opened fire without provocation on September 16 in a main square in Baghdad, killing 17 Iraqis and wounding 22

07 October, 2007

The Paid (and Protected) Terrorists
By Ghali Hassan

On Sunday 16 September 2007, at least 28 innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, were murdered by Blackwater mercenary army. The cold-blooded massacre was an unprovoked violence designed to terrorise and strike fear among the Iraqi population living under murderous Occupation

05 October, 2007

Iraq Body Count: “A Very Misleading Exercise”
By Media Lens

The mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps 5-10% of the true death toll

29 September, 2007

Iraq: A Bush Family Jihad?
By Felicity Arbuthnot

Thomas Nagy is a Member of the Association of Genocide Scholars, who concluded that the deliberate destruction of Iraq's water system in 1991 was genocide. It seems they have a lot more work ahead. Oh, and the invasion of Iraq was sold to the American public, by their Administration linking Saddam Hussein to 11th September 2001 and Osama bin Laden. It was not Saddam, but the Bush family who were in business with the Bin Ladens.What wickedness

26 September, 2007

"Pick Up The Gun"(Fishing for evildoers)
By Mickey Z.

As reported in the New York Times, US snipers in Iraq are "using fake weapons and bomb-making material as bait and then killing anyone who picks them up."

23 September, 2007

Ignorance Of Iraqi Death Toll No Longer An Option
By Les Roberts & Gilbert Burnham

Not wanting to think about civilian deaths in Iraq has become almost universal. The average American believed approximately 9,900 Iraqis had died as a result of the war according to a February 2007 AP poll. Unfortunately, recent evidence suggests that things in Iraq may be one-hundred times worse than Americans realize

17 September, 2007

It Is The Death Of History
By Robert Fisk

The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation

Tail Between Legs
By Sukant Chandan

Britain seems intent on continuing its course of military confrontation with the Islamic world. Is it any surprise that there are people from Basra to Helmand who feel that it is only the language of armed resistance that can enable them to knock any sense into the British?

15 September, 2007

More Than One Million Iraqi Deaths Since US Invasion
By Patrick Martin

The British polling agency ORB reported Thursday that the death toll in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion has passed the one million mark.According to ORB, US-occupied Iraq, with an estimated 1.2 million violent deaths, has “a murder rate that now exceeds the Rwanda genocide from 1994 (800,000 murdered),” with another one million wounded and millions more driven from their homes into internal or external exile

Education Iraq: Back To School,Back To Horror
By Ali al-Fadhily

As another school year begins in Iraq, parents approach it with dread, fearing for the safety of their children.With the security situation grimmer than ever all over the country, just stepping out of one's house means a serious threat to life

14 September, 2007

An Assassination That Blows Apart
Bush's Hopes Of Pacifying Iraq

By Patrick Cockburn

Last week George Bush flew into Iraq to meet Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, leader of Anbar province.This week General David Petraeus told the US Congress how Anbar was a model for Iraq. Yesterday Abu Risha was assassinated by bombers in Anbar

12 September, 2007

Fighting Amongst Shias Adds To Violence
By Ali al-Fadhily

Clashes between rival Shia militas in Kerbala have spread across southern Iraq and Baghdad, adding a new dimension to sectarian violence

The “Surge” In Iraq’s Atrocity
By Ghali Hassan

While world’s attention is diverted by the U.S. flawed threat to attack Iran and replace the elected government in Tehran with a puppet one, U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq continues to murder, displace and imprisoned Iraqis en masse. The aim is to manipulate public opinion at home, and divert attention away for the Occupation and the destruction of Iraq

11 September, 2007

Clerics Begin To Take Over
By Ali al-Fadhily

Religious clerics are beginning to play an increasingly powerful role in Iraq. Many Iraqis now fear that they are endangering human rights and religious freedom in the once largely secular country

08 September, 2007

The Shiite Power Struggle:
Hardly Good News For The US In Iraq

By Ramzy Baroud

The decision made by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to halt his Mahdi Army’s attacks on occupation forces and Iraqi security is likely to be considered the single most promising breakthrough for the US military in Iraq. Although the move comes ahead of several reports to be presented to the US Congress later this month, the decision was ultimately an outcome of a long-brewing intersectarian conflict between Shiite Iraqis, which will further complicate the devastating American failure in Iraq

07 September, 2007

The Girl Blogger From Baghdad Leaves Home
By Baghdad Burning

Baghdad Burning, the girl blogger from Baghdad who so movingly chronicled the fall, destruction and deterioration of a city leaves her home and becomes a refugee in Syria

Samarra Under U.S. Attack
By Ali al-Fadhily

Residents are fleeing Samarra city in the face of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and resistance groups

With Donkeys For Transport,All Is Well
By Ali al-Fadhily

A brave new attempt is under way to project that all is well now with Fallujah. Residents know better -- or worse

30 August, 2007

Families Of Detainees Losing Hope
By Ali al-Fadhily

Hopes are fading for early release of the large number of Iraqis detained under the so-called surge.The number of detainees held by the U.S. military has increased by more than 50 percent since the U.S. administration announced the surge six months ago, bringing the detainee population to at least 24,500, according to U.S. military officers in Iraq. The officers have said the detainee population was 16,000 in February of this year

29 August, 2007

Fallujah Finds A False Peace
By Ali al-Fadhily

Fallujah is quiet these days. After all the fighting and destruction of 2004, U.S. and Iraqi forces call this success. Many residents are not so sure

28 August, 2007

The Great Iraq Swindle
By Rolling Stone Magazine

How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury

22 August, 2007

Another U.S. Military Operation,More Unrest
By Ali al-Fadhily

New U.S. military operations across Iraq appear to be worsening the situation

Why Iraqis Oppose U.S.-Backed 'Oil Law'?
By David Bacon

The USA said it went in to liberate Iraq. The ‘oil law’ they seek to ram down the Iraqi throats proves the intent all along was to control its oil

20 August, 2007

The UN: An Instrument Of Terror
By Ghali Hassan

On 10 August 2007, the United Nations Security Council has voted to give the UN an “extended role” in U.S.-British occupied Iraq after more than four years in which the UN was ignored and considered irrelevant by the U.S. and its few willing allies. The new UN Resolution, sponsored (as usual) by the U.S. and Britain, is a propaganda designed to manipulate the public and legitimise ongoing U.S.-British terror in Iraq

Iraq Progress Report: A Time To Assess And Reflect
By Stephen Lendman

In the end, Iraq may surrender as Vietnam did and lose everything now being fought for. How this plays out will only be known in the fullness of time. Millions of Iraqis hope equity and justice will triumph over greed and are betting their lives on it. May their struggle not be in vain

Iraq, The Unavoidable Global Trauma
By Pablo Ouziel

So while as westerners we count the number of "our" soldiers wounded or dead as a measurement of success or failure in this immoral war, we tend to ignore the fact that all those Iraqis dead, injured or displaced are having a long-term impact on our everyday life. If we wait for our governments to decide when the killing has gone on long enough, I cannot help but wonder whether in the not so distant future, we as westerners will be facing a moral trial and the subjugate trauma attached to it

Caught Between The U.S. And Al-Qaeda
By Ahmed Ali

The major U.S. military operation in Baquba city north of Baghdad has ended, but it has left continuing suffering for residents in its wake

Dutiful Daughters...
By Layla Anwar

And there are also, dutiful daughters lingering in overcrowded prisons with no trials, waiting for their names to be called to the gallows. And of course there are dutiful daughters being hunted down.One of them is Raghad Saddam Hussein Al Majid. The daughter of the legitimate President of Iraq

16 August, 2007

Hide And Seek...Again !
By Layla Anwar

I maintain that the Iraq Body Count figure of 70'000 is shameful to say the least.I have also said on numerous occasions, that even the Lancet figure of 655'000 Iraqis dead is obsolete by now. I was slightly relieved to see that some websites did publish the more accurate figure of 1 million +. I reiterate yet again, the figure is greater than 1 million+.

14 August, 2007

Iran Ties Weaken Government Further
By Ali al-Fadhily

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's increasing ties with Iran have triggered a splintering of his government.Several groups, both Sunni and Shia, have followed the Sunni al-Tawafuq bloc (Iraqi Accord Front) in quitting the U.S.-backed government. But Maliki refuses to make the concessions necessary to bring his "unity" government back together

13 August, 2007

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
By Layla Anwar

I just read in the Observer, the Guardian's sister, that the US army in Iraq is crippled by fatigue. The article says that those poor soldiers are suffering from sleep disorders, the proverbial PTSD, conjugal problems, exhaustion, lassitude and bouts of acute superstition... They also live on "Red Bull" and "Rip it"

12 August, 2007

The Cracks In Saddam's Dam
By Patrick Cockburn

As world attention focuses on the daily slaughter in Iraq, a devastating disaster is impending in the north of the country, where the wall of a dam holding back the Tigris river north of Mosul city is in danger of imminent collapse

11 August, 2007

Iraqi Government On Brink Of Collapse
By James Cogan

The political survival of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in doubt following the withdrawal from his cabinet of two political blocs that derive the bulk of their support from Iraq’s Sunni Arab population. A variety of sectarian and ethnic cliques in Baghdad are reportedly involved in discussion with the Bush administration over ousting Maliki and forming a new government when the Iraqi parliament resumes in September

10 August, 2007

Those Summertime Blues
By Layla Anwar

Fridges, freezers, air coolers, AC, fans, ventilators, forget it...only in the Green zone. Only in the comfort zone of the Brothel.Thirst, infants dying of thirst and the river still eaten up by the brothel holders...

09 August, 2007

Iraqis Oppose Oil Privatization
By Aaron Glantz

A new public opinion poll has found nearly two thirds of Iraqis oppose plans to open the country’s oilfields to foreign companies.The poll found a majority of every Iraqi ethnic and religious group believe their oil should remain nationalized. Some 66 percent of Shi’ites and 62 percent of Sunnis support government control of the oil sector, along with 52 percent of Kurds

Sectarianism Splits Security In Diyala
By Ahmed Ali

Militia from the Shia organisation Badr have taken over the police force in Diyala province north of Baghdad. The government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is believed to have backed such infiltration, and this has reportedly led to clashes with U.S. military leaders

03 August, 2007

A Nail In Maliki Government's Coffin?
By Ali al-Fadhily

The recent resignations of Iraq's Army Chief of Staff and several of his council military leaders underscore a continuing decomposition of Iraq's U.S.-backed government

01 August, 2007

The Resort To Indiscriminate Killings
By Ghali Hassan

Thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians were killed every day in one of the most premeditated and unprovoked acts of aggression in history. Why the U.S. is resorting to indiscriminate killings of Iraqi civilians?

A Little Easier To Occupy From The Air
By Ali al-Fadhily

Many Iraqis believe the dramatic escalation in U.S. military use of air power is a sign of defeat for the occupation forces on the ground

31 July, 2007

Humanitarian Disaster In Iraq
By Jerry White

Eight million Iraqis—or one third of the country’s population—urgently require water, sanitation, food and shelter, according to a new report issued by the British-based relief organization Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee of Iraq, a network of nearly 300 international and Iraq-based non-governmental organizations

Iraqi Team Wins Asian Cup,
Captain Condemns US Occupation

By Patrick Martin

The 1-0 victory by the Iraqi soccer team in Sunday’s Asian Cup featured a brilliant goal on a header by Younis Mahmoud, the team’s 24-year-old captain. This was followed by an “own goal” for the Bush administration and its Iraqi stooge regime, which had hoped to reap a propaganda windfall from the event. Instead, Mahmoud told a worldwide television audience that he dared not return to his homeland because of the conditions created by the US occupation. “I want America to go out,” he said. “Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn’t invade Iraq and hopefully it will be over soon.”

30 July, 2007

Football Succeeds Where Politics Fails
By Ali al-Fadhily

An Iraqi football victory seems to have united Iraqis across the country where politicians only divide it

26 July, 2007

Baquba Denied The Healing Touch
By Ahmed Ali

Diyala General Hospital in the provincial capital Baquba has been hit by severe lack of supplies amid ongoing attacks by militants. The shortages coupled with a lack of basic infrastructure have left the largest hospital in Diyala province short of supplies, and staffed by terrorised doctors often unable to do their job

25 July, 2007

Iraqis Blame US Depleted Uranium For
Surge In Cancer

By RIA Novosti

Iraq’s environment minister blamed Monday the use of depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces during the 2003 Operation Shock and Awe for the current surge in cancer cases across the country. As a result of “at least 350 sites in Iraq being contaminated during bombing” with depleted uranium (DU) weapons, Nermin Othman said, the nation is facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7,000 to 8,000 new ones registered each year

24 July, 2007

Living Becomes Hard In A Dead City
By Ahmed Ali

Life in the violence-plagued capital city of Iraq's Diyala province has become a struggle for day-to-day survival.Heavy U.S military operations, sectarian death squads and al-Qaeda militants have combined to make normal life in Baquba, 50 km northeast of Baghdad, all but impossible

19 July, 2007

Carnage In Kirkuk Amid Conflicts Over City’s Future
By James Cogan

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-filled truck on Monday in the busy political and commercial district of the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk, just as hundreds of people were going for their lunch-break. The carnage was horrendous. At least 85 people were killed and more than 180 wounded. The victims were predominantly ethnic Kurds. Given the crisis-stricken state of the country’s health system, many of the injured are unlikely to survive

18 July, 2007

Mass Graves Dug To Deal With Death Toll
By Ahmed Ali

The largest morgue in Diyala province is overflowing daily. Officials told IPS they have had to dig mass graves to dispose of bodies

17 July, 2007

Iraqi River Carries Grotesque Cargo
By Mona Mahmoud & Sebastian Usher

Five hundred mutilated bodies dumped into the River Tigris have been washed up in two years in the town of Suweira, 100km south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad

Just Another Day In Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn

The United States surge, the use of the American troop reinforcements to bring violence in Iraq under control, is bloodily failing across northern Iraq. That was proved again yesterday when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives in Kirkuk killing at least 85 people and wounding a further 183

Most Foreign Insurgents In Iraq Are Saudis
By Peter Symonds

An article in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times detailing the national origins of foreign insurgents in Iraq has punctured a large hole in the Bush administration’s relentless propaganda against Iran. Most foreign fighters, however, come, not from Iran, but Saudi Arabia, a close American ally, with which the Bush administration in particular has intimate ties

16 July, 2007

Partition Fears Begin To Rise
By Ali al-Fadhily

Many Iraqis are now beginning to see the rising sectarian violence as part of a larger plan to partition the country

12 July, 2007

The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness
By Chris Hedges & Laila Al-Arian

Over the past several months The Nation has interviewed fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the United States in an effort to investigate the effects of the four-year-old occupation on average Iraqi civilians. These combat veterans, some of whom bear deep emotional and physical scars, and many of whom have come to oppose the occupation, gave vivid, on-the-record accounts. They described a brutal side of the war rarely seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts

06 July, 2007

Under Sustained US Pressure, Iraqi Cabinet
Sends Oil Law To Parliament

By James Cogan

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went before the media on Tuesday to announce that his cabinet had “unanimously” approved US-backed draft legislation covering the future development of Iraq’s vast oil resources. The parliament, he declared, would begin debating the oil law the following day. He trumpetted his achievement as a key step towards finalising the “most important law in Iraq”

Killing 15,000 Iraqis Every Month
By Michael Schwartz

A state-of-the-art research study published in October 12, 2006 issue of The Lancet (the most prestigious British medical journal) concluded that—as of a year ago—600,000 Iraqis had died violently due to the war in Iraq. That is, the Iraqi death rate for the first 39 months of the war was just about 15,000 per month. That wasn’t the worst of it, because the death rate was increasing precipitously, and during the first half of 2006 the monthly rate was approximately 30,000 per month, a rate that no doubt has increased further during the ferocious fighting associated with the current American surge

02 July, 2007

Massacre In Baghdad’s Sadr City
By Patrick Martin

In one of the largest raids into the largely Shiite Sadr City district of eastern Baghdad, US forces killed some 26 people and detained another 17, according to an announcement by a military spokesman Saturday. The early-morning raid produced an explosion of violence, with US tanks and helicopters opening fire in the densely populated working-class neighborhood and destroying both vehicles and entire buildings

29 June, 2007

Fallujah On The Boil Again
By Ali al-Fadhily

Strict curfew and tight security measures have brought difficult living conditions and heightened tempers to residents of this besieged city.The siege in this city located 60km west of Baghdad has entered its second month. There is little sign of any international attention to the plight of the city. Fallujah, which is largely sympathetic to the Iraqi resistance, was assaulted twice by the U.S. military in 2004

26 June, 2007

Fallujah-Style Offensive Underway In Baqubah
By Peter Symonds

A huge US offensive codenamed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper” is underway in the Iraqi city of Baqubah, as part of extensive American operations aimed at suppressing insurgent groups in Baghdad and areas to the north and south of the capital. US troops, backed by armoured vehicles, artillery, helicopter gunships and warplanes, have sealed off the city of 300,000

24 June, 2007

Victory In Iraq?
By Adil E. Shamoo & Bonnie Bricker

While the American people are seeking a way to bring the troops home from Iraq, the President and his administration are aiming to stay for much longer by redefining “victory” in Iraq once again—this time as a permanent occupier

21 June, 2007

Sceptical After Second Shrine Attack
By Ali al-Fadhily

The second bombing of the Shiite shrine of al-Askari in Samarra, Iraq, last week brought reprisal attacks, but it also brought solidarity against the occupiers

20 June, 2007

US Military Launches Massive Assault In Iraq
By Bill Van Auken

Backed by armored columns and helicopter gunships, some 10,000 US troops have launched a massive assault on the provincial capital of Baquba and other areas north and east of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.The operation, dubbed Arrowhead Ripper, is one of the largest since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003

Northern Iraq’s Tangled Web
By Conn Hallinan

There are few areas in the world more entangled in historical deceit and betrayal than northern Iraq, where the British, the Ottomans, and the Americans have played a deadly game of political chess at the expense of the local Kurds. And now, because of a volatile brew of internal Iraqi and Turkish politics, coupled with the Bush administration’s clandestine war to destabilize and overthrow the Iranian government, the region threatens to explode into a full-scale regional war

19 June, 2007

A Dream Called Electricity
By Ali al-Fadhily

Simmering in the summer heat, Iraqis now have a dream called electricity.It is a part of the bigger dream of reconstruction that collapsed. On all measurable levels, the infrastructure is worse than under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, even when it was crippled by the harshest economic sanctions in modern history

18 June, 2007

US Needs To Exit Iraq
By Mikhail Gorbachev

U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is inevitable. But is it not better to withdraw when the major players inside and outside of Iraq agree on key issues?

13 June, 2007

Bush Administration Embarks On
Reckless New Tactic In Iraq

By Peter Symonds

With its much-vaunted “surge” showing no signs of success and American casualties continuing to rise, the US military has begun to arm and equip sections of the Sunni insurgency, supposedly to fight against intransigent layers such as Al Qaeda-linked groups. Weapons, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies are being provided to selected Sunni militia

12 June, 2007

106 Journalists Killed In Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn

Sahar al-Haideri, an Iraqi journalist, had received 13 death threats before she was murdered in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul last week. Her killing brings to 106 the number of journalists, almost all Iraqi, murdered in the country since the US invasion in 2003 along with 39 support staff

10 June, 2007

Lawmaker Confirms Kurd-Shia Clashes In Baghdad
By Ali al-Fadhily

Speaking on condition of strict anonymity inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone of central Baghdad where the Iraqi government meets, the MP told IPS that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "sold Kirkuk in exchange for Kurdish support for his collapsing government, and other matters such as not being in the way of Shiite militias in Baghdad

08 June, 2007

Turkish Troops Chase Kurd Guerrilla Into Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn

Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish guerrillas early Wednesday. The incursion, though limited in scope, gives the crisis in Iraq a new twist

01 June, 2007

The Destruction Of Iraqi Healthcare Infrastructure
By Adil Shamoo

Ten thousand doctors have fled the country. Two thousand have been killed. Some hospitals lack the rudimentary elements of care: hygiene, clean water, antibiotics, anesthetics and other basic drugs. Oxygen, gauze, rubber gloves, and diagnostic instruments such as X-rays are absent or rarely evident. This is Iraq today

28 May, 2007

"Baghdad Is A Smashed City..."
By Dahr Jamail

A letter from Baghdad

26 May, 2007

Congress Gives Iraq War Profiteers
Another Hundred Billion

By Evelyn Pringle

Congress has demonstrated its unconditional love for the Bush administration by handing the war profiteers another $100 billion worth of good reasons to keep the war in Iraq rolling along at full-throttle

Where Nobody Is Accountable
By Ali al-Fadhily

Killings, crime, lack of medical care, collapse of education, the list goes on. But with the occupation by U.S.-led forces now into a fifth year, and a supposedly democratic government in place, no one knows who to hold accountable for all that is going wrong

24 May, 2007

Walls As Enforcer Of Occupation
By Ghali Hassan

The ongoing Occupation is not to “stop the violence”; the Occupation is the violence. The aim of the occupiers is to create pretexts to justify the Occupation. The U.S.-built walls around Iraqi towns and suburbs, including the recent wall around Baghdad’s district of al-Adhamiyah, are evidence of a U.S.-backed strategy of “divide and rule”. It is the last of many desperate measures to protect the Occupation and it’s headquarter, the “Green Zone”, from a determined national Resistance

23 May, 2007

Opium: Iraq's Deadly New Export
By Patrick Cockburn

Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan

09 May, 2007

Infant Mortality Soars In Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe

Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa

04 May, 2007

Iraq’s “stable” South Descends Into
Political Chaos

By James Cogan

A power struggle between rival Shiite parties in Iraq’s oil-rich southern province of Basra is escalating toward open warfare and looming as a major crisis for the US-led occupation and the British government in particular

02 May, 2007

Iraqi Doctors Out On A Limb
By Dahr Jamail

According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and UN statistics, Khattab is one of 18,000 Iraqi doctors and health care professionals who have fled the war-torn country since the US-led invasion began in March 2003

28 April, 2007

Shi’ite vs. Sunni?
By Conn Hallinan

If the Bush administration is successful in its current efforts to divide Islam by pitting Shi’ites against Sunnis it will revitalize the old colonial tactic of divide and conquer, and maintain the domination of the Middle East by authoritarian elites allied with the U.S. and the international energy industry

27 April, 2007

The Great Wall Of Segregation
By Baghdad Burning

The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will also be difficult to get out

UN Warns Of Growing Humanitarian
Crisis In Occupied Iraq

By Kate Randall

A new United Nations report on human rights in Iraq paints a devastating portrait of the conditions of life facing the civilian population as the US occupation enters its fifth year

25 April, 2007

U.S. Blamed For 'Bloody Wednesday'
By Ali al-Fadhily

Iraqis blame the U.S. occupation for the failure of two parallel security plans drawn up by U.S. forces and Iraqi troops that failed dramatically with the bombings last week that killed more than 300 people in Baghdad

24 April, 2007

How Iraq Was Looted
By Evelyn Pringle

Coalition Provisional Authority was granted the authority to award reconstruction contracts in Iraq and it used that authority to implement what will go down in the history books as the most blatant war profiteering scheme of all time

21 April, 2007

Interview With Senior Ba'ath Party Member
By Dahr Jamail

On Sunday April 15th I interviewed a high ranking member of Iraq's Ba'ath Party in Damascus, Syria. Like many senior party members, he lives in exile in Syria, and spoke on condition of anonymity by asking to be referred to as Abu Mohammed. The following is an exclusive interview

Anger Erupts In Iraq Over Baghdad Bombings
By James Cogan

Four more bombings on Wednesday by suspected Sunni fanatics have left Shiite districts of Baghdad in a state of grief, shock and outrage against the US military and the Iraqi government

Basra Splits Between Warring Shias
By Ali al-Fadhily

Oil-rich Basra in the south of Iraq is getting caught up in an increasingly more fierce battle between warring Shia groups

Iraq Four Years On:A Note For Mr Zapatero
By Agustin Velloso

Prime Minister Zapatero helped Spain avoid the moral collapse and political and military failure that the United States has sought out in Iraq. In better keeping with its international weight and with the old tactic of lighting one candle for God and another for the devil, he abandoned his predecessor's imperialist dream and limited himself to proposing to the world an alliance of civilizations - while sending troops to Afghanistan and Lebanon

19 April, 2007

Iraq Has Two Virginia Techs Every Day
By Juan Cole

The profound sorrow and alarm produced in the American public by the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech should give us a baseline for what the Iraqis are actually living through. They have two Virginia Tech-style attacks every single day

Refugees Bring In Some Brittle Strength
By Dahr Jamail

Syria's decision to accept Iraqi refugees streaming into the country has brought the government of President Bashar Assad more power within Syria and the region, but at significant cost

A Lot Of Uninvited Guests
By Dahr Jamail

The massive influx of Iraqi refugees into Syria has brought rising prices and overcrowding, but most Syrians seem to have accepted more than a million of the refugees happily enough

Sadrist Ministers Withdraw From Iraqi Cabinet
By James Cogan

Six ministers of the Iraqi cabinet, members of the Shiite fundamentalist movement headed by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, formally resigned their positions on Monday. The Sadrists declared they were responding to the mass sentiment among their supporters that US and other foreign troops must be ordered to leave the country

18 April, 2007

Iraqi Parliament Bombing: A Sign Of Deepening Crisis
By Peter Symonds

The bombing inside the Iraqi parliament last Thursday has underscored the deepening quagmire created by the US-led invasion and occupation. Four years after American troops entered Baghdad, nowhere in the country—including the heavily fortified and guarded Green Zone where the huge US embassy and Iraqi government offices are also sited—is invulnerable to attack

17 April, 2007

Where Al-Qaeda Reigns
By Dahr Jamail

Refugees from Baquba city who have now found shelter in Damascus describe their hometown as a "dead city" where armed men roam the streets and al-Qaeda reigns

14 April, 2007

A Bloody Message From Iraq: Nowhere Is Safe
By Patrick Cockburn

Nowhere is safe. Insurgents struck in the heart of the Green Zone yesterday, one of the most heavily defended places in Baghdad. The symbolism - and the bloody message - was clear with this attack on the home to the US-imposed democracy. A suicide bomber cleared at least eight rings of security to blow himself up in the Iraqi parliament, killing eight people including three lawmakers as they were eating lunch. It was the most deadly attack mounted from within the Green Zone

13 April, 2007

US Raid On Mosque Leads To Massacre In Baghdad
By Bill Van Auken

Scores of people were left killed or wounded and bodies littered the streets of two crowded urban neighborhoods in central Baghdad following a major battle between US occupation forces and city residents Tuesday

12 April, 2007

Divide And Rule - America's Plan For Baghdad
By Robert Fisk

Revealed: a new counter-insurgency strategy to carve up the city into sealed areas. The tactic failed in Vietnam. So what chance does it have in Iraq?

Myth Of Tal Afar, Beacon Of American 'Success'
By Patrick Cockburn

It was always a myth. On 27 March, a gigantic truck bomb exploded in a Shia market area in Tal Afar. It was the deadliest single bomb out of the many that have been detonated by Sunni insurgents. The Interior Ministry said that 152 people were killed and 347 wounded in the explosion

Refugees Speak Of Escape From Hell
By Dahr Jamail

Refugees from Iraq scattered around Damascus describe hellish conditions in the country they managed to leave behind

Now The South Erupts
By Ali al-Fadhily

The eruption of demonstrations in the south of Iraq this week could rob the occupation forces of what was considered a critical bastion of support

11 April, 2007

Hundreds Of Thousands March In Iraq
To Demand End Of US Occupation

By Bill Van Auken

In a huge demonstration marking the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to US invasion forces, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis marched in the city of Najaf Monday to demand an end to the American occupation of their land

10 April, 2007

And These Refugees Are Lucky
By Dahr Jamail

Salim, a railways worker in Baghdad, sold his car and furniture to raise money to bring his wife and three children to Damascus five months ago. Syria it had to be, because by then the Jordan government was no more letting in men his age.He found the money to get to Syria, and he has all of a tea shop now, and that makes him one of the luckier Iraqis who could flee

How Much Can Iraq Survive
By Ali al-Fadhily

Iraqis surviving violence are not so sure they can also survive disease

05 April, 2007

The New War Against The New Iraq
By Dan Lieberman

It's not a surge. It's a brand new war

03 April, 2007

Iraqi Oil Belongs To The Iraqi People
By Nancy Wohlforth & Fred Mason

The proposed Petroleum Law creates a Federal Oil and Gas Council on which would sit representatives of Exxon- Mobil, Shell, BP, etc., whose tasks include approving their own contracts. Instead of Iraqi central government decision-making on oil, the proposal authorizes regional authorities to individually sign contracts with foreign companies, promoting contract bidding wars between regions that could lead to breaking Iraq into three states

31 March, 2007

The Great Iraq Oil Robbery
By Alan Maass

The oil men of the Bush administration are trying to set up one of the biggest swindles in history--the great Iraq oil robbery.The cabinet of the new Iraqi government--under pressure from the U.S. occupiers who put them in power--approved a law that would undo Iraq's nationalized system and give Western oil giants unparalleled access to the country's vast reserves

Fallujah Fears A 'Genocidal Strategy'
By Ali al-Fadhily

Iraqis in the volatile al-Anbar province west of Baghdad are reporting regular killings carried out by U.S. forces that many believe are part of a 'genocidal' strategy

US Occupation Sets Off Sectarian Atrocities In Tal Afar
By James Cogan

After suffering four years of US occupation, constant violence and unspeakable living conditions, communities in some of the most traumatised cities in Iraq are facing a new wave of sectarian and politically motivated killings, provoked by the stepped up operations being carried out by American troops and the predominantly Shiite and Kurdish Iraqi government security forces against largely Sunni insurgents

28 March, 2007

One Picture Sits Over Differing Surveys
By Ali al-Fadhily

The two surveys, one following the other, told quite different stories about Iraq. But Iraqis did not need to look at either to know what their own story is like

26 March, 2007

Another Casualty: Coverage Of The Iraq War
By Dahr Jamail

Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. Along with names and dates, the Brussels Tribunal has listed the circumstances under which Iraqi media personnel have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This extremely credible report cites 195 as dead. If non-Iraqi media representatives are included, the figure goes beyond 200. Both figures are well in excess of the media fatalities suffered in Vietnam or during World War II

22 March, 2007

Four Years: One Million Iraqi Deaths
By Gideon Polya

It is now the Fourth Anniversary of the illegal US, UK and Australian invasion of Iraq (March 20, 2003). Mainstream media are still ignoring the carnage – but now the post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths total one million

Iraq: A country Drenched In Blood
By Patrick Cockburn

Four years after US and British troops invaded Iraq, its people are full of fear. Iraqis often have a look of half-suppressed panic in their eyes as they tell how violent death has touched them again and again

20 March, 2007

What Solution For Iraq: A Bad War
Tribunal Or A Good Guerilla Attack?

By Agustin Velloso

The reaction to the crimes that are perpetrated in Iraq and in the Middle East should change from asking for war tribunals if there is not enough power to establish them, to support the Iraqi, Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against the aggressors and the occupiers. It is not certain that the resistance will achieve justice, but it is certain that the aggressors will not bring justice. Any effective support given to the resistance is far better than words without action

Open Letter To The Anti-War Movement
By Hana Abdul Ilah Al Bayaty

The national popular resistance in Iraq, in defending the whole of humanity against a culture of force, deserves our recognition and support

19 March, 2007

Blaming The Victims:
Covering Up Terrorism In Iraq

By Ghali Hassan

A recent cover story in the Time magazine (March, 2007, Europe and Asia) by Bobby Ghosh, “Why They Hate Each Other”, aimed at removing the Occupation as the generator of violence against the Iraqi people, and portrays the violence as “Iraqis killing Iraqis”. This media distortion obfuscates the U.S. monopoly on terrorism and allows the U.S. to use Iraq as a laboratory for terror at the expense of the Iraqi people

17 March, 2007

The Bush Administration Manoeuvres
To Unseat Iraqi Government

By Peter Symonds

Despite denials from Washington, there are growing signs that the Bush administration has issued threats to its puppet government in Baghdad to meet US-dictated “benchmarks” or face the consequences. The White House aims not only to end the military disaster in Iraq and open up the country’s oil for exploitation, but to fashion an Iraqi regime more supportive of US preparations for aggression against Iran

Give Us Some Real Political Leaders
By Ali al-Fadhily

Many Iraqis are now looking to local political leadership to fill wide gaps in a fractured government that is failing to provide security and basic needs

16 March, 2007

Iraqi Women:Four Years After The Invasion
By Dr. Nadje Al-Ali

Islamist militants and terrorist groups also pose a particular danger to Iraqi women. Many women’s organizations and activists inside Iraq have documented the increasing Islamist threats to women: the pressure to conform to certain dress codes, the restrictions in movement and behaviour, incidents of acid thrown into women’s faces and even targeted killings

Iraqis In Despair
By Adil E. Shamoo & Bonnie Bricker

While politicians in Washington argue over the future of Iraq, half a world away a bloody battle for the soul of Iraq is being fought by Iraqis who are paying a high price for the U.S. occupation. When asked about Iraq and its future, many Iraqis have the same refrain: there is no more Iraq, Iraq is lost. Others say: make us safe or leave us alone

14 March, 2007

Security Meet Ends,Insecurity Does Not
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

The security conference held last Saturday in Baghdad produced statements, drew mortar fire, and brought little hope of security

11 March, 2007

US Military Begins Operations In Baghdad’s Sadr City
By James Cogan

American and Iraqi government forces have initiated regular patrols this week in northeastern Baghdad’s densely populated, predominantly Shiite, working class suburb of Sadr City. More than 1,200 troops have entered the area since Sunday, searching homes and establishing vehicle checkpoints. Thus far, they have encountered no resistance

10 March, 2007

Democrats “Withdrawal” Plan Paves
Way To Escalation Of Iraq War

By Bill Van Auken

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic congressional leaders unveiled a toothless plan Thursday that they claim would result in the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq a year and a half from now. The main purpose of this political exercise, however, is to unite the party behind supplemental funding legislation that will provide at least $100 billion more to pay for the escalation of the illegal war and occupation that has been waged by Washington for the past four years

03 March, 2007

Rape Cases Emerge From The Shadows
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

Reports of the gang-rape of 20-year-old Sabrine al-Janabi by three policemen has set off new demands for justice from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government

Outrage Over Imminent Execution Of Iraqi Women
By Dahr Jamail & Ali Al-Fadhily

Three young women accused of joining the Iraqi insurgency movement and engaging in "terrorism" have been sentenced to death, provoking protest from rights organisations fearing that this could be the start of more executions of women in post-Saddam Hussein's Iraq

01 March, 2007

In Iraq, The Killing Of 18 Teenagers
Is A Horrible Routine

By Robert Fisk

This is a story with a caution. Eighteen teenagers were killed on Monday at a football field east of Baghdad. On Sunday, equally young students of Mustansiriya University - the oldest in Baghdad - were blown up by a suicide bomber. It has become a routine, at one and the same time more horrible and more normal each day

28 February, 2007

Congressional Democrats Rule Out
Iraq War Fund Cutoff

By Patrick Martin

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, flatly rejected Sunday any attempt to cut off funding for the US war in Iraq, calling such an action “immoral” and declaring his party’s commitment to the “success” of the American occupation of Iraq

26 February, 2007

The Rape Of Sabrine
By Baghdad Burning

Sabrine Al-Janabi might just be the bravest Iraqi woman ever. Everyone knows American forces and Iraqi security forces are raping women (and men), but this is possibly the first woman who publicly comes out and tells about it using her actual name. Hearing her tell her story physically makes my heart ache. Some people will call her a liar. Others (including pro-war Iraqis) will call her a prostitute- shame on you in advance

24 February, 2007

Another U.S. Military Assault On Media
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

U.S. soldiers raided and ransacked the offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists (ISJ) in central Baghdad Tuesday this week. Ten armed guards were arrested, and 10 computers and 15 small electricity generators kept for donation to families of killed journalists were seized

Fallujans Defiant Amidst Chaos
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

Resistance attacks against U.S. forces have been continuing in Fallujah despite military onslaughts and strong security measures

21 February, 2007

US Troops Terrorize Baghdad
In “Operation Law And Order”

By Kate Randall

Thousands of US troops went house to house through mostly Shiite areas in northeastern Baghdad February 13 in the opening phase of Operation Law and Order, the “surge” plan announced by the Bush administration January 10

Now It Is Lack Of Food Security
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

The lack of security in Iraq is leading now to a collapse in food supplies.The security situation and lack of petrol mean that local farmers are often unable to get their food to the markets

16 February, 2007

More Troops, And More Violence
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

Violence and bombings have only increased after the proposed "surge" of 21,500 U.S. troops in Iraq

13 February, 2007

Iraq:Iran 'Fooling' U.S. Military
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

"I really admire the way Iranians are dealing with the situation in a professional way while the Americans are walking with their eyes closed. They are losing the last Iraqi fort they were hiding behind, and that was the peaceful way Arab Shias were dealing with occupation."

12 February, 2007

Why Saddam Was Killed?
By Ghali Hassan

If Western media and Western leaders are telling you that; “Iraqis executed President Saddam” and that “the U.S. had nothing to do with his murder”, they lied. This act of murder and violation of International Law are parts of U.S. barbarism in Iraq. The aim is to escalate the violence against the Iraqi people and justify ongoing U.S. Occupation and colonial dictatorship

10 February, 2007

Iraqi Insurgents Offer Peace
In Return For US Concessions

By Robert Fisk

For the first time, one of Iraq's principal insurgent groups has set out the terms of a ceasefire that would allow American and British forces to leave the country they invaded almost four years ago

07 February, 2007

US Iraqi Holocaust And One Million Excess Deaths
By Dr Gideon Polya

As of February 2007 the accrual cost has been $2.3 TRILLION; there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees; the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million

03 February, 2007

Iraq: Who Did The US Military
Massacre Near Najaf?

By James Cogan

Many aspects of what transpired last Sunday on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Najaf are confused and unclear. But one thing is certain: American and British jets and helicopters killed hundreds of men who were resisting an assault by Iraqi government troops on the village of Zarqa. Who the men were is still the subject of controversy

02 February, 2007

Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

Iraqi government lies over the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq

US 'Victory' Against Cult Leader Was A 'Massacre'
By Patrick Cockburn

There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre

01 February, 2007

Violence Escalates Against Students
And Teachers In Iraq

By Sandy English

The kidnapping of three law professors and a student on Monday and the deaths on Sunday of five students at a girls’ secondary school underscores the collapse of the Iraqi educational system brought on by the American invasion

31 January, 2007

Iraq’s Colonial Occupier, The US,
Denounces “Foreign Meddling”

By David Walsh

In recent weeks US government and military officials, aided and abetted by the American media, have stepped up the war of words against Iran. As they did precisely four years ago, in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq

Jordan Becomes A Doubtful Refuge
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

Hundreds of thousands have fled the violence in Iraq to seek refuge in Jordan, but refugees are now beginning to find its borders closing

27 January, 2007

Bush Authorizes Shoot-To-Kill
Policy Against Iranians In Iraq

By Jerry White

The Bush administration has authorized US military forces in Iraq to hunt down and kill Iranian government personnel operating in that country, according to a report that first appeared in the Washington Post last Friday

26 January, 2007

Inside Baghdad: A City Paralysed By Fear
By Patrick Cockburn

Baghdad is paralysed by fear. Iraqi drivers are terrified of running into impromptu checkpoints where heavily armed men in civilian clothes may drag them out of their cars and kill them for being the wrong religion. Some districts exchange mortar fire every night. This is mayhem beyond the comprehension of George Bush and Tony Blair

24 January, 2007

The Garland Of The War In Iraq
By Mustapha Marrouchi

The Anglo-American attack on Iraq in 2003 was one of the worst-reported conflicts in history. A system of media management has kept the violent deaths of some 650,000 innocent people out of the public view

24 January, 2007

US Occupation Turns 3.7 Million
Iraqis Into Refugees

By James Cogan

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported this month that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq has forced one out of every eight Iraqis to flee their homes—more than 3.7 million people

U.S.-Tailored Iraqi Oil Alarm
For Producers, Consumers

By Nicola Nasser

After listening to the monotonous and incredible U.S. lies for four years about “we are not there for Iraq's oil,” the oil truth is now unfolding. Without a decisive military victory, the U.S. occupation of Iraq seems to be about to grab its oil prize by establishing a new sharing arrangement between a major national producer and the multi-national giants, an arrangement that Washington plans to set as the model to be followed both by the oil-rich region and the world at large

23 January, 2007

Southern Iraqi Tribes Joining Armed Resistance
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

Violence is spreading further across Iraq, as Shi'ite Arab tribes in the south begin to engage occupation forces in new armed resistance.Resistance in the southern parts of Iraq has been escalating over the last three months, leading to increased casualties among British and other occupation forces

The Arabs’ Feelings Of Love
And Hate For Saddam Hussein

By Ramzy Baroud

Regardless of what Arabs and Muslims around the world felt of Saddam’s history and leadership, his capture, his trial and undignified execution were a collective humiliation for us all, a humiliation that will not be forgotten for perhaps many years. And sadly, this international public spectacle has the potential to reap devastating ramifications

20 January, 2007

The Battle To Save Iraq's Children
By Colin Brown

The desperate plight of children who are dying in Iraqi hospitals for the lack of simple equipment that in some cases can cost as little as 95p is revealed today in a letter signed by nearly 100 eminent doctors

The War Becomes More Unholy
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

A stepped up military offensive that targets mosques, religious leaders and Islamic customs is leading many Iraqis to believe that the US-led invasion really was a "holy war."

19 January, 2007

More Than 34,000 Iraqi Civilian Deaths In 2006
By Kate Randall

The United Nations reported Tuesday that 34,452 Iraqi civilians died in 2006 as a result of bombings, extra-judicial executions and other forms of violence

Furor Over Saddam's Execution Continues Unabated
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

BAGHDAD - Expressions of outrage over the conduct of the trial and the manner of Saddam Hussein's rushed, chaotic execution are continuing unabated here as lawyers and human rights groups voice their criticism – although some are still cautiously asking the media to withhold their names from publication

18 January, 2007

Two More Barbaric State Executions In Iraq
By James Cogan

The latest executions in Baghdad exemplify the barbarism that prevails in US-occupied Iraq. Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, the 56-year-old half-brother of Saddam Hussein and former head of his regime’s intelligence service, and Awad Hamed al-Bander, the 61-year-old former chief judge of the Baathist Revolutionary Court, were hung in the early hours of Monday morning

17 January, 2007

Paradoxes Doom Bush’s ‘New Strategy’ In Iraq
By Nicola Nasser

President George W. Bush’s paradoxical “new strategy” in Iraq is doomed by its own contradictions as much as by Iraqi and regional paradoxes and would in no time prove that the U.S. president’s go-it-alone approach will only extend the failure of the 2003 military invasion in developing into a permanent occupation, amid wide spread world and American calls for withdrawal and political solution

Fishing In Troubled Waters
By Gareth Porter

The revelation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the campaign against Iranian officials had already been in effect for several months before Bush's speech last Wednesday indicates that the new rhetoric is aimed at serving the desperate need of the White House to shift the blame for its failure in Iraq to Iran, and to appear to be taking tough action

13 January, 2007

Cry Iraq
By Mustapha Marrouchi

The US program for the Arab world has become the same as Israel’s for Palestine. If the Iraq of yesteryear stood for an Arab identity par excellence, today, it represents the loss of that very identity. The aim of the invasion was to reshape the Middle East so that Palestine will become Israel, Jordan Palestine, and Iraq the Hashemite Kingdom

12 January, 2007

Bush's New Strategy - The March Of Folly
By Robert Fisk

So into the graveyard of Iraq, George Bush, commander-in-chief, is to send another 21,000 of his soldiers. The march of folly is to continue

To “Save Iraqi Democracy” Bush’s
War Will Target Shias Too

By M. A. Muqtedar Khan

With this speech President Bush has practically declared war on Shias. He has decided to go after Shia militias in Iraq , and Shia regimes in the region. Until now the US has been fighting only with the Sunnis -- Al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgency. But from now on US troops will be fighting al Qaeda, Sunni insurgents, the Mahdi and Badr militias and perhaps even Iranian and Syria intelligence and commando units

The Man Who Now Holds Iraq's Future In His Hands
By Patrick Cockburn

He is a strange figure to be targeted as the number one enemy of the US in Iraq. Four years ago, few had heard of the Shia nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr inside or outside Iraq. Even somebody as suspicious as Saddam Hussein, who murdered his father and two brothers, did not think he would play any role in the coming crisis. Now he holds the future of Iraq in his hands

Iraqi Regime Set To Hand Over Oil
Reserves To US Energy Giants

By Jerry White

As the Bush administration prepares to escalate military violence against the Iraqi people the US-installed regime in Baghdad is set to approve a new hydrocarbon law that will hand unprecedented control of the country’s vast oil reserves to US and British energy conglomerates

Media Under Growing Siege
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

The U.S. administration continues to tout Iraq as a shining example of democracy in the Middle East, but press freedom in Iraq has plummeted since the beginning of the occupation

10 January, 2007

Democrats Criticize Iraq “Surge”,
But Won’t Cut War Funds

By Patrick Martin

The two top congressional Democratic leaders have publicly opposed the Bush administration’s plans to dispatch more troops to Iraq, while signaling to the White House that there will be no serious effort to prevent an escalation of the slaughter as the bloodbath in Iraq heads towards its fifth year

Terrified Soldiers Terrifying People
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

More than 5,000 civilians killed by U.S. soldiers have been buried in Fallujah cemeteries and mass graves dug on the outskirts of the city, according to the Study Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, a non-governmental organisation based in Fallujah

09 January, 2007

One Last Chance For Sanity In Iraq
By Ramzy Baroud

US President George W Bush's new war strategy due to be officially announced on Wednesday, which will likely meet an uphill battle at the now Democrat-controlled Congress, is a slap in the face of the majority of American voters, and indeed the democratic process

Chronicle Of Saddam's Death Foretold
By Salim Nazzal

Saddam Hussein seems to be similar to the character of Santiago Nassar in the Marquez novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, when every body knows that the murderers would kill Nassar. The only difference is that Nassar did not know that they planned to kill him, while Saddam knew

08 January, 2007

Future Of Iraq: The spoils Of War
By Danny Fortson,Andrew Murray-Watson & Tim Webb

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days

07 January, 2007

The Whole Bloody Thing Was Obscene
By Robert Fisk

The lynching of Saddam Hussein will turn out to be one of the determining moments in the whole shameful crusade upon which the West embarked in March of 2003

He Takes His Secrets To The Grave
By Robert Fisk

How the West armed Saddam, fed him intelligence on his 'enemies', equipped him for atrocities - and then made sure he wouldn't squeal

Execution Memories Refuse To Go Away
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily

The footage of the execution of Saddam Hussein has generated controversy in Iraq that is refusing to die down

05 January, 2007

Saddam Hussain: From Monster To Martyr?
By Patrick Cockburn

It takes real genius to create a martyr out of Saddam Hussain. Here is a man dyed deep with the blood of his own people who refused to fight for him during the United States-led invasion three-and-a-half years ago. His tomb in his home village of Awja is already becoming a place of pilgrimage for the five million Sunni Arabs of Iraq who are at the core of the uprising

The Inevitable End Of Saddam
By Hasan Abu Nimah

The ugly killing of Saddam will do nothing to restore peace to the region, nor will it help Iraq. It is a mark of the savagery that has come to replace politics and diplomacy in international affairs, and of the reduction and humiliation of the Arab nation

US-Ordered Rush Job
By Gwynne Dyer

The American government wanted Saddam Hussein executed for the Dujail killings to avoid revealing its complicity in his bigger crimes

04 January, 2007

Why The Rush To Execute Saddam?
By Tarek Fatah

With the death of Saddam, the secrets that could have emerged at the Halabja trial will probably never come to light. His death will be a relief to those in America who feared being exposed for having aided Saddam as he murdered so many of his countrymen

The Consequences Of Killing Saddam
By Robert Dreyfuss

In life, even in prison, Saddam inspired many loyalists to fight for his legacy; but his death is certain to spark even fiercer violence, not just from his remaining lieutenants and senior Baath party officials but throughout the broader Sunni Arab community in Iraq. It pushes any hope of Sunni-Shiite reconciliation farther away, inflames passions on both sides and solidifies the image of the United States in Iraq as a bloodthirsty occupier

Saddam Hussein Execution:
A Sectarian Lynching

By Patrick Martin

A video of the final minutes of Saddam Hussein, released to the Arab media late Saturday and widely broadcast around the world, demonstrates that the execution of the former Iraqi president was an act of sectarian vengeance by the Shiite Muslim groups placed in power by the US invasion of the country

A Lynching...
By Baghdad Burning

One of the most advanced countries in the world did not help to reconstruct Iraq, they didn't even help produce a decent constitution. They did, however, contribute nicely to a kangaroo court and a lynching. A lynching shall go down in history as America's biggest accomplishment in Iraq. So who's next? Who hangs for the hundreds of thousands who've died as a direct result of this war and occupation? Bush? Blair? Maliki? Jaffari? Allawi? Chalabi?

'Illegal' Execution Enrages Arabs
By Dahr Jamail & Ali Al-Fadhily

The execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein carried out at the start of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha has angered Iraqis and others across the Middle East

 

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