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IPS brings you independent perspective on what is happening in Iran, Iraq and across the Middle East.
Iraqi MPs Challenge Coalition Mandate
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS – The UN Security Council has been warned by Iraqi parliamentarians of a potentially “serious” constitutional and political crisis if it decides to renew the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force beyond December 2007, without approval from lawmakers.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40038
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IRAQ: A Tale of One City, Now Two
Ali al-Fadhily*
BAGHDAD – 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.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40018
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US-IRAQ: Outrage in a Time of Apathy
Aaron Glantz*
SAN FRANCISCO – Unlike most U.S. journalists who went to Iraq to cover a war, Dahr Jamail went to try to stop it.
In his new book, “Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq”, Jamail writes of volunteering as a rescue ranger at Denali National Park in Alaska while news of the invasion and occupation of Iraq played on the radio.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40036
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Dems Put War Costs at 3.5 Trillion Through 2017
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost U.S. taxpayers as much as 3.5 trillion dollars through 2017 if both direct and indirect, or “hidden”, costs are taken into account, according to a new report released here Tuesday by Democrats in Congress.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40043
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MIDEAST: All Not Quite Aboard for Annapolis
Analysis by Peter Hirschberg
JERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again paid a visit to the Middle East, held meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, spoken about the seriousness of the two sides in their efforts to revive the peace process, but has again left the region without issuing invitations to a planned U.S.-led peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40017
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Case Crumbles Against Officer Who Refused Iraq
Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCSICO – First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq, won what his backers are calling a “huge victory” in court. A U.S. District Court judge ruled the military cannot put Watada on trial a second time unless it can prove such a trial would not violate the Constitution’s prohibition against “double jeopardy”.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40001
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IRAN: Sugar Industry Strikes Bespeak Bitter Conditions
Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN – Labour protests and strikes, though firmly suppressed in Iran, are gaining momentum as failure to manage the frail economic structure pushes more and more state-owned factories and private enterprises into bankruptcy.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39994
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IRAQ: Fewer Deaths Bring No Reassurance
Ali al-Fadhily*
BAGHDAD – Despite claims by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Bush administration officials that violence in Iraq is decreasing, residents in the capital tell a different story.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39993
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US State Dept Drafts the Not So Willing for Iraq
William Fisher
NEW YORK – As a shortage of experienced diplomats in Iraq has led the U.S. State Department to announce that it will force Foreign Service officers to serve in Baghdad against their will, the leader of the U.S. diplomatic service is charging that critics, “including people who urged the 2003 invasion”, are now seeking to blame the department for their own failures.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39983
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Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran NIE
Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON – A National Intelligence Estimate on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former CIA officers.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39978
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Schools, Academics in the Gun Sights
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS – A “dramatic increase” in targeted violence against schools and educational institutions, mostly in conflict zones, is having a devastating effect on students, teachers, trade unionists, administrators and education officials, according to a new U.N. study.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39987
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New Crises Sap Bush’s War on Terror
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – Just as the White House claims that it has finally turned the corner in what it defines as the “central front” in the war on terror — Iraq — it has found itself desperately trying to contain new crises in the war’s “periphery” stretching east to Pakistan, west to Turkey, and south to the Horn of Africa.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39986
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EGYPT: Controversy Swirls Over When to Execute
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO – Egyptians are likely to watch the upcoming U.N. General Assembly vote on a moratorium on executions — to be held in the coming weeks — with interest. But while many in this majority Muslim country would welcome a resolution aimed at reining in the use of capital punishment, there remain serious reservations about making any pledges for the “total abolition” of the practice.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39980
LobeLog.com
IPS Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe’s take on U.S. foreign policy and the story behind the story. www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/
For more IPS reporting on the Middle East – www.ipsnews.net/middle.asp
Iraq: Beyond the Green Zone – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/index.asp
Iran: The Parthian Shot – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iran/index.asp
Holy Land/Unholy War – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/israel_palestina/index.asp
Afghan Divide – www.ipsnews.net/afghanistan/index.asp
View From the U.S.: Bush at War – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/warII/index.asp
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