U.S. detention of Iraqis grows without end
The United States is, once again, expanding the size of its largest detention center in Iraq. According to an October 31 report by the military paper Stars and Stripes, U.S. forces will be increasing the capacity of detainees at Camp Bucca from 20,000 to 30,000. A policeman checks the papers of newly released prisoners in...U.S. troops to stay in Iraq beyond 2008
WASHINGTON U.S. forces will remain in Iraq beyond the end of 2008, but a continued U.S. troop presence will not tie the hands of a future U.S. president, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in a newspaper column this week. "It is clear ... that U.S. forces will need to operate in Iraq beyond the...Assad meets top U.N. official on Iraqi refugees
DAMASCUS Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres this week to discuss the plight of Iraqi refugees in Syria, official news agency SANA reported. They discussed "cooperation between the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and Syria with regard to improving the conditions (of refugees)...U.S.-backed groups challenge government
BAQUBA (IPS) U.S. backed Sunni militants have challenged the U.S.-backed Iraqi government in Baghdad, and demanded political power after two women were killed by government forces. Tensions rose earlier this month when men dressed in Iraqi security personnel uniforms kidnapped two women. Their naked bodies were found later. After the...The tragic future of Iraq
Any analysis of the current state of the ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq that relied solely on the U.S. government, the major candidates for president or the major media outlets in the United States for information would be hard pressed to find any bad news. In a State of the Union address which had everything except a "Mission...Iraq: Police and army getting sidelined
BAQUBA (IPS) New military operations in Diyala province north of Baghdad have exacerbated a growing conflict between U.S.-backed Sunni fighters on the one hand and Iraqi army and police forces on the other. The U.S. military commenced a large military operation Jan. 8 in the volatile Diyala province. Seven U.S. battalions led an...Awakened to a new danger in Iraq
Credited with reducing violence, forces have actually sown new conflict BAGHDAD (IPS) The newly formed "Awakening" forces set up by the U.S. military are bringing new conflict among people here. For months now the U.S. military has been actively building what it calls "Awakening" forces and "Concerned Local Citizens" in an effort to...Nationalists stirring in Iraq
Country may have a chance if U.S. gets out of way On January 13, an emerging Sunni-Shi'a nationalist bloc in Iraq signed a groundbreaking agreement aimed at ending Iraq's civil war, blocking the privatization of Iraq's oil industry and checkmating the breakaway Kurdish state. It's a big step forward, and it could change the...New Year begins unhappily in Iraq
WASHINGTON (IPS) The end of 2007 produced a telltale indication of what the New Year seems likely to bring to Iraq."We the Iraqi members of parliament signing below demand a timetable for withdrawal of the occupation forces (MNF) from our beloved Iraq," 144 members of the 275-member parliament, a clear majority, wrote in a declaration...Depending on paper police for security
'Power in Iraq will soon be turned to tribal leaders' BAGHDAD (IPS) 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...Detentions escalate in Diwaniyah
DIWANIYAH (IPS) 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." "Hundreds of our men were detained and accused of being militiamen supported by Iran," Mahmood Allawi, a 50-year-old lawyer from Diwaniyah,...Iraq spending bill stalls in Senate
Former Iraqi commander says bring the troops home The Senate remains deeply divided over whether to give President Bush all the money he wants without limitations for continuing the war in Iraq, as two opposing war funding measures failed to pass Friday morning. Republicans had the first crack at the latest war funding bill, as...Will ‘armloads’ of U.S. cash buy tribal loyalty?
The U.S. policy of paying Sunni Arab sheikhs for their allegiance could be risky. TIKRIT Inside a stately guesthouse on the grounds of Saddam Hussein's palace in Tikrit on the banks of the Tigris, sheikh Sabah al-Hassani jokes that the initials "SH" of the former dictator etched on the walls are his. "I have a weakness for Cuban...The Sunni in Iraq’s Shi’a leadership
Baghdad Tariq al-Hashemi says he cringes when he's described as Iraq's Sunni vice president. Mr. Hashemi, one of two vice presidents the other, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, is Shi'i says he is trying to reach out to all Iraqis. In September, he met for the first time with Iraq's most influential Shi'i cleric, the reclusive Grand Ayatollah Ali...A spiritual first in Baghdad
BAGHDAD There is neither a cross nor a sign on the heavy metal gate to indicate that this is the official residence of one of the country's most prominent Christians, the first in Iraq in modern times to be elevated to cardinal by the Roman Catholic Church. The simple structure, in a dilapidated neighborhood of this capital, opposite......
Evaluating the Iraq war
This week marks the fifth anniversary of Congress's vote to authorize the Bush Administration to overthrow the government of Iraq by military force. The Nation opposed the war authorization. In "An Open Letter to Congress," which we published on the magazine's cover on the eve of the vote, we argued that it would have "a significance...The wider dilemma of Iraq
The intense political focus on Iraq in the United States continues to revolve around the theme of how soon the U.S. might be able to substantially withdraw its troops. Democrats who won a majority in the Congress last November have run up against the limits of their slim majority. Their lack of a two-thirds majority to override a......
U.S. Senate votes to partition Iraq. Softly.
On 26 September 2007 the United States Senate voted 7523 in favor of an amendment to the defense spending bill for 2008 that authorizes the U.S. government to "encourage" Iraqis to find a "federal" solution to the internal conflicts in their country. At least two different interpretations of the bill are possible. First, one may...Bush’s fake sheik whacked
Did you see George all choked up? In his surreal TV talk two weeks ago, he got all emotional over the killing by Al Qaeda of Sheik Abu Risha, the leader of the new Sunni alliance with the U.S. against the insurgents in Anbar Province, Iraq. Bush shook Abu Rishas hand two weeks prior to that for the cameras. Bush can shake his hand...First cholera case confirmed in Baghdad
Baghdad The World Health Organization on Thursday confirmed the first cholera case in Baghdad, raising fears the disease is spreading. A 25-year-old woman from western Baghdad was found to have cholera after she turned up at the hospital with a severe case of diarrhea, said Dr. Naeema al-Gasseer, the WHO's representative in...Maliki blasts Blackwater firm for other attacks
BAGHDAD Blackwater security guards who protect top U.S. diplomats in Iraq have been involved in at least seven serious attacks, some of which resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Wednesday. Maliki didn't detail the incidents, which he said add to the case against the North......
The Shi’a power struggle: Not good news in Iraq
The decision made by Shi'a 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 U.S. military in Iraq. Although the move comes ahead of several reports to be presented to the U.S. Congress later this month, the decision...In Iraq, sex is traded for survival
Baghdad When Rana Jalil, 38, lost her husband in an explosion in Baghdad last year, she could never have imagined becoming a prostitute in order to feed her children. A mother of four, Jalil sought out employment, but job opportunities forwomen had decreased since the U.S. invasion. She begged shop owners, office workers and companies......
America waking up to scale of Iraq disaster
July 29th, 20070 The most probable result of U.S. withdrawal will be further bloodshed Iraq is over. Iraq has not yet begun. Two conclusions from the American debate about Iraq, which dominates the media in the U.S. to the exclusion of almost any other foreign story. Iraq is over insofar as the American public has decided that most U.S. troops should...What next after Samarra bombing?
ARBIL (IPS) Iraq is again haunted by the ghosts of Samarra, with last week's attack on the Shi'a-revered al-Askari mosque raising fears that it could touch off a new wave of sectarian violence in a country already crippled by large-scale violence and political crisis. In a similar move last year, al Qaeda in Iraq bombed the......
