11/12/07

Disputed in Iraq, Blackwater Now Splits California Town
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121107T.shtml
Solomon Moore of The New York Times writes: “The scandal in Iraq involving Blackwater, the private security firm, is a world away from this tiny town near the Mexican border. But five members of the community’s planning group are expected to lose their posts on Tuesday for approving a Blackwater training camp on an old chicken farm here.”

Bereaved Iraqi father thirsts for revenge
Death squads working in Iraqi police force continue committing murderers for no known reason.
Ammar Karim, Middle East Online
Since a death squad meted out a terrifying end to his football-crazy son in Baghdad two years ago, Abu Fuad has had only one thought in his mind — revenge. His beloved Fuad, 20, disappeared in October 2005 after responding to a mystery phone call. His father found his body 16 months later at a cemetery in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. He had been badly tortured and was horrifically disfigured. “I will never let the criminals escape even if I spend my life searching for them,” said 52-year-old Abu Fuad, who carries a faded picture of his son wherever he goes. “Someone telephoned my son, who was a football player in one of local teams, in mid-October 2005. My son left home — and never returned,” said Abu Fuad, an ordinary civil servant now caught up in the cycle of killings and revenge murders which has ravaged Iraq since the US invasion of 2003….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39120

Christians in Basra told not to celebrate
LEILA FADEL AND ALI AL-BASRI, McClatchy Newspapers
The Christian archbishop of Basra on Tuesday canceled the celebration of Christmas in that southern city to protest the deaths of a brother and sister, both Christians, as bombings and mayhem struck at cities throughout Iraq. Archbishop Imad al-Banna said Christians in Basra should still pray to mark Christmas, but should forgo such celebratory trappings as trees, gift-swapping and family gatherings to protest the deaths of Maysoon Farid, a 30-year-old cashier at a local pharmacy, and her brother Osama, 33. The two were found dead Monday night, dumped in a neighborhood controlled by the Shiite Muslim Mahdi Army militia….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39116

IRAQ: Call for release of female detainees
IRIN News
Iraq’s parliamentary committee for women’s and children’s affairs has demanded the immediate release of female detainees in Iraqi and US-run prisons. “We call upon the Iraqi government and US-led forces to release immediately all female prisoners who have not been convicted,” member of parliament Nadira Habib, deputy head of the parliamentary committee, told IRIN in an interview on 9 December. “The Iraqi government should expedite reviewing the files of these detainees by forming committees of lawyers, judges and prosecutors, as the majority of them [female detainees] are innocents,” Nadira said…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39114

Follow the Leader: Halliburton Rape Case Reflects Bush Ethos
Chris Floyd, Empire
…The Bush Regime would not want to prosecute them good old Halliburton boys in any case; after all, they were only doing to this young woman what their paymasters on the Potomac have been doing to the entire country of Iraq year after year after year after year. Like the infamous guards at Abu Ghraib, like the American soldiers who raped, murdered and burned 15-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza, or the Bush-backed, American-armed Iraqi security forces who abducted and raped young Sabrine Al-Janabi, the Halliburton attackers were carrying out on a smaller scale the very essence, ethos and aim of George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, and all of their enablers in both parties, in the press, and throughout the American Establishment: the violent imposition of their barbaric desires….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39113

Iraqi Kurds for long term US presence in Iraq
Africasia, UK
A top Iraqi Kurdish leader on Tuesday said the Kurds want a deal with Washington that would protect their rights as well ensure long term American troops presence in the country. On his arrival from a visit to Washington, Omar Fatah, deputy prime minister of Iraq’s northern Kurdish government, said they want a “strategic agreement with the Americans” similar to the one between Washington and Baghdad signed last month. That was for a long-term economic and political agreement that would also keep American forces in Iraq beyond 2008….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39106

Iraq’s Tareq Aziz suffered heart attack: son
AFP
Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz suffered a heart attack last week in a US military prison in Iraq, his son said on Tuesday. “My father has not been hospitalised when he had a heart attack last week, and when he called us on Wednesday, we could hardly understand him,” Ziad Aziz told AFP in a telephone interview. “I hold the authorities at the prison responsible for his health condition, particularly that they have not charged him with any crime.” Aziz, 71, who also served as foreign minister under the regime of late President Saddam Hussein, is being detained at a camp outside Baghdad…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39103

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie: Iraq rejects permanent U.S. bases
Peter Graff, Reuters
Iraq will never allow the United States to have permanent military bases on its soil, the government’s national security adviser said, calling the issue a “red line” that cannot be crossed. “We need the United States in our war against terrorism, we need them to guard our border sometimes, we need them for economic support and we need them for diplomatic and political support,” Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said.
www.uruknet.de/?p=3909

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie: Iraq rejects permanent U.S. bases
Peter Graff, Reuters
Iraq will never allow the United States to have permanent military bases on its soil, the government’s national security adviser said, calling the issue a “red line” that cannot be crossed. “We need the United States in our war against terrorism, we need them to guard our border sometimes, we need them for economic support and we need them for diplomatic and political support,” Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said.
www.uruknet.de/?p=3909

U.S. Military in Command Changes in Iraq
ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
The U.S. military in Iraq is undergoing its biggest changeover in senior commanders since Gen. David Petraeus launched a new counterinsurgency strategy nearly a year ago. The high-level shifts come at a particularly delicate stage in the war as U.S. troop levels begin to decline, Iraqis are handed more security responsibility and Petraeus seeks to ensure that the gains achieved over the past several months continue. The leadership changes are likely to be disruptive, at least for a brief period, as the new set of commanders – even those with Iraq experience – adjust to rapidly changing conditions….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39112

Iraq: At least 10 killed as US occupation grinds on:
 
A suicide car bomb exploded near the homes of senior Iraqi politicians in a heavily guarded neighbourhood of western Baghdad on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding 12, police said.
snipurl.com/1v4q9
 
Soldier says Army sergeant shot unarmed Iraqi:
A Fort Hood military tribunal heard testimony today that an Army sergeant kicked and shot an Iraqi insurgent as he lay bleeding from nearly two dozen gunshot wounds.
www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=7483453&nav=menu73_2_12
 
Take No Prisoners :
U.S. Marines execute an Iraqi to the cheers of fellow marines
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5365.htm
 
Christians in Basra told not to celebrate:
The Christian archbishop of Basra on Tuesday canceled the celebration of Christmas in that southern city to protest the deaths of a brother and sister, both Christians, as bombings and mayhem struck at cities throughout Iraq.
www.newsobserver.com/2178/story/824599.html
 
Iraq rejects permanent U.S. bases – adviser:
Iraq will never allow the United States to have permanent military bases on its soil, the government’s national security adviser said, calling the issue a “red line” that cannot be crossed.
snipurl.com/1v4qf

Bomb Targets Iraq Politicians’ Compounds 11 Dec 2007 A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint protecting the compounds of Iraq’s former prime minister and a Sunni lawmaker on Tuesday, killing two guards in a neighborhood bordering the fortified Green Zone.
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3
oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8TF9S101

Huge blast shakes Baghdad 11 Dec 2007 A powerful bomb has gone off in the west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad and sent thick white smoke into the sky, a report says. The blast occurred near Baghdad’s once upscale Sunni Mansur neighborhood.
www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=34504&sectionid=351020201

Fresh wave of violence hits Baghdad 11 Dec 2007 Fourteen people have been killed and dozens of others wounded as a fresh wave of violence hits the shattered Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=34478&sectionid=351020201

10th Mountain Division asks for civilian volunteers to Iraq 11 Dec 2007 Fort Drum commanders are looking for volunteers to serve in Iraq and are asking the post’s 1,000 civilians workers if any are interested. The civilians would assist soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division’s 1,000-member Headquarters brigade, which will deploy to Iraq next spring to provide overhead and support for other combat troops already there, Lt. Col. Paul Swiergosz said Tuesday.
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc
-ny—fortdrum-civilian1211dec11,0,2892923.story

Opposition To Iraq War Connected To Causes For War, Not Violence …
By Chris Bowers
I still don’t think that the poll gets the attention it deserved, because it asked something very important that no other public poll has asked: why people support or oppose the war in Iraq, not simply whether they support or oppose it. …
www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2725

US Military in Command Changes in Iraq
The Associated Press –
WASHINGTON (AP) — The US military in Iraq is undergoing its biggest
changeover in senior commanders since Gen. David Petraeus launched a new
…
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5idE3W_T
RDtg5M8laq-aVKS5mVMJAD8TFF5NO0

Shi’ite factions proclaim truce in Iraq’s Basra
Reuters UK – UK
By Aref Mohammed BASRA, Iraq, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The Shi’ite factions that
have feuded over control of Iraq’s southern oil hub Basra have proclaimed a
truce …
uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL113898120071211

Bomb Targets Iraq Politicians’ Compounds
The Associated Press –
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at a
checkpoint protecting the compounds of Iraq’s former prime minister and a
Sunni lawmaker …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYe
FwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8TF9S101

Iraq suicide bomber kills police near ex-pm’s home: officials
AFP –
US and Iraqi officials say violence in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, has
dropped significantly, but insurgents still manage to carry out deadly
bombings in …
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gd6qB0Ov88OTEZI-BIXgXYgL_vBA

10th Mountain Division asks for civilian volunteers to Iraq
Newsday – Long Island,NY,USA
FORT DRUM, NY (AP) _ Fort Drum commanders are looking for volunteers to
serve in Iraq and are asking the post’s 1000 civilians workers if any are
interested …
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-b
c-ny—fortdrum-civilian1211dec11,0,2892923.story

Iraq asks US to stay one more year
Sydney Morning Herald – Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein
and hunt for weapons of mass destruction that were never found. …
www.smh.com.au/news/world/iraq-asks-us-to
-stay-one-more-year/2007/12/12/1197135492195.html

William Kristol: How To Make the Iraq War Much, Much Worse
By Albert Clark(Albert Clark)
It is important to note that, unlike the foreign Salafi Jihadi fighters (a la Abu Musab al Zarqawi and his Tawhid network) who infiltrated Iraq to fight the Americans and are despised by the Iraqi Shi’a, Iranian infiltrators in Iraq are …
www.theothereveningnews.com/2007/12/
william-kristol-how-to-make-iraq-war.html

Iraq calmer, but more divided
Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
…
In the south, Shiite Muslim militias are at war over the lucrative oil resources in the Basra region. To the west, in Anbar province, Sunni Arab tribes that once fought U.S. forces now help police the streets and control the highways to Jordan and Syria. In the north, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens are locked in a battle for the regions around Kirkuk and Mosul. In Baghdad, blast walls partition neighborhoods policed by Sunni paramilitary groups and Shiite militias. “Iraq is moving in the direction of a failed state, a highly decentralized situation — totally unplanned, of course — with competing centers of power run by warlords and militias,” said Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group. “The central government has no political control whatsoever beyond Baghdad, maybe not even beyond the Green Zone.”…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39085

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 10 December 2007.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
…In a dispatch posted at 11:10pm Baghdad time Monday night, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that Iraqi puppet forces closed the one entrance to the city of Samarra’ at noon on Monday after a puppet policeman was killed on the west bank of the Tigris River in the city by an Iraqi Resistance sharpshooter. The AMSI reported that meanwhile fighting broke out between Resistance men on one side and US troops and their puppet allies on the other in the as-Sikak neighborhood of the city. No information on the outcome of the fighting was available. On Sunday, AMSI reported, US forces opened fire indiscriminately around the neighborhood of al-Jubayriyah after an Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded by a US patrol. The wild American shooting began just as primary schools were letting out, and children coming into the streets were panicked….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39091

Iraq Rejects Permanent US Bases
By Larkin
Iraq will never allow the United States to have permanent military bases on its soil, the government’s national security adviser said. “We need the United States in our war against terrorism, we need them to guard our border sometimes, …
feeds.wizbangblog.com/~r/WizbangBlue/~3/1987
72570/iraq-rejects-permanent-us-bases.php

WikiLeaks Posts More Prison Docs — This One from Iraq Prison
By Kim Zetter
Unlike the previous two documents, which covered standard operating procedures for guards working at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp, this one is a manual for Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. Bucca is the primary camp for prisoners of …
blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/12/wikileaks-posts.html

Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by US, Halliburton/KBR
By Mark S.
A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the US government are covering up the incident. Submitted by Mark S. to US Politics & Gov’t | Note-it! | Add a Comment.
www.care2.com/news/member/101933861/567069

Woman Files Lawsuit Against Halliburton, KBR
A Houston-area woman who worked as a civilian contractor in Iraq has filed a lawsuit claiming she was gang-raped by fellow contractors. FOX-26'S Ned Hibberd has the details.
www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/News/
Detail?contentId=5179721&version=1&locale=EN-

Iraq’s Sadr Uses Lull to Rebuild Army
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121107D.shtml
Sam Dagher, writing for The Christian Science Monitor, reports: “Moqtada al-Sadr’s Shiite militia aims to return leaner, stronger. Many analysts say what may reemerge is an Iraqi version of Lebanon’s Hizbullah – a state within a state that embraces politics while maintaining a separate military and social structure that holds powerful sway at home and in the region.”

Greg Grandin | Death Squads, Disappearances and Torture From Latin America to Iraq
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121107F.shtml
Greg Grandin, writing for TomDispatch.com, says, “Throughout the second half of the Cold War, Washington’s anti-communist allies killed more than 300,000 civilians, many of whom were simply desaparecido – ‘disappeared.’ Like rendition, disappearances can’t be carried out without a synchronized, sophisticated, and increasingly transnational infrastructure.”

Baghdad safer, but it’s a life behind walls
Sam Dagher
…It’s not just Abu Nawas that’s starting to resemble a fortress. Walls like those around the ultrasecure Green Zone, where US officials and Iraqi dignitaries live and work, are rising around neighborhoods all over Baghdad – new “Green Zones” protected by US-paid Iraqi neighborhood guards. Creating civilian havens is a cornerstone of the US counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. While many here are grateful for the newfound calm, they say the price is an increasingly segregated city that is starting to feel like a collective cage. In many cases, the US military is keeping tabs on male residents by collecting fingerprints and retinal scans. “One road in and one road out, that’s it,” says Ghazaliya resident Muhammad Rajab. “Iraq is a prison, and now I live in my own little prison,” he adds wryly….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39084

IRAQ: Education Becomes the New Casualty in Baquba
Ahmed Ali*
The alarming security situation in Diyala province north of Baghdad has killed off much of the education system. The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had at first brought hope. Salaries were increased; a newly appointed primary or secondary school teacher was given 200,000 Iraqi Dinars, about 150 dollars a month. In September 2006, the Ministry of Education increased teachers’ salaries by 20 to 50 percent in an attempt to entice them to stay in their jobs. But in Diyala capital Baquba, 40km north of Baghdad, lack of security means many teachers have quit, and children are not going to school…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39078

Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR
KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says
BRIAN ROSS, MADDY SAUER & JUSTIN ROOD
A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident. Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job. “Don’t plan on working back in Iraq. There won’t be a position here, and there won’t be a position in Houston,” Jones says she was told….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39080

Harsh refugee life rather than improved security spurs return of Iraqi refugees
Ashley Jonathan Clements – Regional Emergency Advocacy Adviser (MEERO)
The recent return of considerable numbers of Iraqi refugees to their homeland has been hailed by some as evidence of an improvement in the security situation inside Iraq. Many Iraqi refugees face little alternative, however, than to return to their homeland, according to a survey by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in Syria. Most returnees did so because they were running out of money or because their visas had expired, states the report, with less than 15 per cent found to be returning because they believed the security situation had improved. According to the Iraqi government, up to 1,000 Iraqi refugees are returning to their homeland each day. “So far there are no indications that the refugees in Jordan are planning to return to Iraq anytime soon,” said Nidal Qsar, Jordan Office Manager. “World Vision is continuing to monitor the situation closely for signs of change” added Qsar….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39074

US-Iran to discuss Iraq on December 18: minister
AFP
US and Iranian officials will hold another round of talks on Iraq’s security next week, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Monday, adding that cooperation from Iraq’s neighbours was improving. Zebari said officials from Tehran, Washington and Baghdad would meet on December 18 to thrash out strategies aimed at quelling the violence in Iraq. “This will be a technical meeting … not at ambassadors level… but at experts level. There are positive signals from Tehran and Washington,” Zebari told a news conference….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39069

igns of a major turning point
Arablinks
Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bulani, in a follow-up to the highly-touted seizure of documents near Tikrit late last week, said yesterday his ministry has recruited 3000 special police agents to track down resistance Baathists. There were a couple of particularly noteworthy points in what he said. First: He said this is going to involve pursuit of people from both the Izzat al-Douri wing and the rival Yunis al-Ahmed wing. This is noteworthy because of what sketchy information we have about talks or negotiations between the US and the GreenZone on the one side and Baathists on the other. The split between the two wings occurred immediately after the execution of Saddam, and the Douri loyalists accused the Yunis wing (and the government of Syria) of preparing to sell out to the Americans. And there has been continuing tension over the question of who is talking to the Americans and who is not…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39072

3,000 undercover cops to track down Dori, Ahmad cells – minister
Voices of Iraq
Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bulani said his ministry recruited 3,000 undercover policemen to track down the former Baath Party cells belonging to Izzat Ibrahim al-Dori and Muhammad Younes al-Ahmad. “The operatives of the so-called al-Awda (Return) Organization, which stemmed from the Baath Party and belong to Dori and Ahmad, will be hunted down by 3,000 policemen working undercover,” Bulani said in a joint press conference with Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Ubaidi on Sunday. Bulani said “one of the strong factors that contributed to enhancing security was the decision taken by Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr to freeze his Mahdi Army militias, which helped sort out criminals who cover under several names.”….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39061

Sunday: 46 Iraqis Killed, 28 Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
Baiji was again the scene of an attack that left several people dead or injured. Overall, 46 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 28 were wounded throughout the country. No Coalition deaths were reported. Also, officials have banned the use of government vehicles that lack license places in order to curb their use in attacks. In Baghdad, mortars injured into Karrada injuring two people. One person was killed and two were injured during a mortar attack in Rashidiyah. Five unidentified bodies were found. No casualties were reported after a mortar attack on the Green Zone. Also, Iraqi soldiers shot and killed a person wearing a suicide vest…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39076

Saudis and UAE want to reopen Baghdad missions: Iraq
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have asked to reopen their diplomatic missions in Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Monday. The United States has repeatedly urged Sunni Arab Saudi Arabia, a regional heavyweight, to reopen its embassy in Baghdad as a sign of support to the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government. Saudi diplomatic representation would send a strong signal to other reluctant Arab countries to follow suit….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39075

Whatever Happened to “Iraq Summer”?
By Michael Goldfarb
These same “realities,” also emboldening anti-war groups to declare an “Iraq Summer,” during which they would finally crush domestic support for the war and force Congress to de-fund the mission there. MoveOn.org and others dispatched …
www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007
/12/whatever_happened_to_iraq_summ.asp

Walling Iraq
(Tal Afar slid back into chaos when the 3rd ACR was redeployed to another hot spot—another indication that clear and hold, much less clear, hold, and build, requires a lot more troops than the United States has ever had in Iraq.) …
matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/ar
chives/2007/12/walling_iraq.php

What’s Working In Iraq
By Andrew Sullivan
A reader writes:. My son is an officer in the Army and he is part of the ongoing action over there. Here is what he wrote me some time ago. “No one ever mentions the fact that we have literally built walls around each neighborhood and …
andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_da
ily_dish/2007/12/whats-working-i.html

Iraqi Policewomen Are Told to Surrender Their Weapons
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121107N.shtml
Tina Susman of the Los Angeles Times reports, “The Iraqi government has ordered all policewomen to hand in their guns for redistribution to men or face having their pay withheld, thwarting a US initiative to bring women into the nation’s police force.”

The War And The Democrats:What Are They Doing?
By Thomas Riggins
www.countercurrents.org/riggins111207.htm
It seems that a $ 500 billion budget is in the works which will give Bush “unfettered money for the Iraq war in exchange for new spending on popular domestic programs.” The subtext here is obvious. The Dems will do the bidding of the Military Industrial Complex in return for goodies to take back to the voters to try and get reelected. They will try and make the American people moral accomplices in murder. Daycare funding will be paid for with the blood of Iraqi children

Iraq’s Yazidis Look to Kurdish Region
The Associated Press –
LALESH, Iraq (AP) — Iraq’s embattled Yazidi minority, the target of the
worst single terrorist attack since the US-led invasion, now is looking to
the …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jGhD64yz
T6bEMPEvDmLbRvzQBs4gD8TF4RDO0

Iraq: At least two dead as Iran, US to hold security meeting
Al-Bawaba – Amman,Jordan
… Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said security officials from the United
States and Iran will meet in Baghdad next week to discuss stability in
Iraq. …
www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Iran/219847

The gop’s Iran option is off the table
Salon – USA
Republicans have used the alleged nuclear threat posed by Iran to scare the
American public and to turn attention away from Iraq, economic troubles and
…
www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/12/11/iran_08/

Iraq praises Syria’s support
PRESS TV – Tehran,Iran
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has praised Syria’s help to his
country’s security and stability as well as aid to Iraqi refugees. …
www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=34496&sectionid=351020206

Congress in tug of war over Iraq funding, domestic spending
Los Angeles Times – CA,USA
At the same time, senior Democrats are facing a restive liberal base
incensed by talk that a budget deal would provide more money for the war in
Iraq …
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-
spending11dec11,1,1944570.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

US soldier killed in suicide car bombing in Iraq
Xinhua – China
The latest death brings the number of US soldiers who have been killed in
Iraq to about 3888 since the US-led invasion in 2003, according to media
count …
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/11/content_7230586.htm

Army may revise request for new combat vehicles
USA Today – USA
By Tom Vanden Brook and Peter Eisler, USA TODAY BAGHDAD — The Army, which
rushed to get new armored vehicles to Iraq after being criticized for
moving too …
www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-12-10-MRAP_N.htm

Iraq Ops Update
Coalition forces captured several wanted individuals and dozens of additional suspects.
www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/ne
ws/2007/12/mil-071210-afps01.htm

Iraq snapshot
By Common Ills(Common Ills)
Newsbeat: If they’re AWOL for more than 30 days soldiers are issued
with an arrest warrant but for some, like Phil McDowell, they’d rather
do time behind bars than go back to Iraq and see the mistreatment of civilians. …
thecommonills.blogspot.com/2007/12/iraq-snapshot_10.html

News & Views 12/10/07
By dancewater(Cervantes)
The US-led invasion of Iraq had at first brought hope. Salaries were
increased; a newly appointed primary or secondary school teacher was
given 200000 Iraqi Dinars, about 150 dollars a month. In September
2006, the Ministry of Education …
warnewstoday.blogspot.com/2007/12/news-views-121007.html

Iraq: What is going on?
By Salam Adil(Salam Adil)
Today I continue from my last post trying to make sense of he latest
developments in Iraq. Is Iraq still getting safer or are there cracks
appearing in the new security situation? Also, read about the latest
developments in Mosul and …
asterism.blogspot.com/2007/12/iraq-what-is-going-on.html

Bilateral Relations: Iraq’s FM praises Syria
By Mike Hitchen(Mike Hitchen)
During his visit to Syria, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari praised Syria’s support to Iraq’s security and stability and its aid to the Iraqi refugees. The official SANA news agency reported, Zebari made the remarks while meeting …
ionglobaltrends.blogspot.com/2007/12/b
ilateral-relations-iraqs-fm-praises.html

Prison, oil refinery attacks in Iraq kill seven, wound 23
Taipei Times – Taiwan
One of Iraq’s main refineries came under fire in a separate attack in the
capital — the latest strike against an oil industry vital to the country’s
…
www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/12/11/2003392037

Gains in Iraq’s Anbar permanent: US general
Reuters – USA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Security gains in Iraq’s once-restive Anbar province
are permanent but Iraqi forces need another year and a half before they can
…
www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1041945920071210

Poll: Growing Numbers See Iraq Progress
The Associated Press –
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing numbers of people think the US is making
progress in Iraq, but most remain convinced the invasion was a mistake and
the war will …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iZkKBMK
f9iitG3l25jMxPTEz4odQD8TESQ800

US, Iranian Officials to Discuss Iraq Security Issues
Voice of America – USA
By David Gollust The State Department says US and Iranian officials will
meet next week in Baghdad to discuss Iraq security issues. US officials say
attacks …
voanews.com/english/2007-12-10-voa36.cfm

Democrats Are Rethinking Year-End Budget Strategy
Wall Street Journal – USA
But the Wisconsin Democrat made clear as well that Iraq would have to be
dealt with separately and not as part of some year-end bargain in which Mr.
Bush …
online.wsj.com/article/SB119732663081
520031.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Suspects Detained In Iraqi Police Death
Guardian Unlimited – UK
It was the latest in a series of assassinations against provincial leaders
in Iraq’s Shiite heartland south of Baghdad as militias and other factions
battle …
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7141611,00.html

As Congress Caves On Iraq War Funding, ‘08 Dems Go Silent
By Max Follmer
Days after congressional Democrats signaled their intention to reverse course and provide President Bush with tens of billions in new Iraq war spending, none of the leading Democratic presidential candidates have weighed in. …
www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/10/
as-congress-caves-on-iraq_n_76101.html

Iraq: Yahoo Account Hacked
By Amira Al Hussaini
Bahraini blogger Esra’a reports that the Yahoo email account of an Iraqi human rights activist has been hacked.
www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/12/10/iraq-yahoo-account-hacked/

Why Did Obama Back the Most Pro Iraq War Hawk in 2004?
During the 2004 election, Barack Obama had a chance to back an anti Iraq war, progressive Democrat. Instead he went with Joe Lieberman, the most pro Iraq war hawk in the Democratic ranks. It’s not the first time Mr. …
www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=26675

Iraq’s improving. Deal with it.
I am, as readers know, generally of the opinion that the Iraq War has been a clusterbomb of badly made decisions leading to even worse outcomes. And those who opposed the war had every right to become frustrated and angry when the war’s …
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2007
/12/iraqs_improving_deal_with_it.php