22/12/07

News & Views 12/22/07
By dancewater(Cervantes)
Two years after helping to bring to power a government led by Shiite religious parties, Iraq ‘s paramount Shiite clerics find their influence diminished as their followers criticize them for backing a political alliance that has failed …
warnewstoday.blogspot.com/2007/12/news-views-122207.html

Iraq’s Violence Takes Heavy Toll On Its Children
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today painted a bleak picture of the situation of children in Iraq, where an estimated 2 million boys and girls continue suffer from poor nutrition, disease and interrupted education.
www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0712/S01149.htm

Turkey launches fresh Iraq strikes
Turkish warplanes have again attacked Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq.
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/23/2126206.htm

Turkey stages new air attack on Kurd rebels in Iraq: army
AFP –
ANKARA (AFP) — Turkey’s military said it attacked Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq Saturday for the third time in less than a week, bombing and shelling …
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ixWC6Qq-OSZdcsd7QXctmwS3N5TQ

Iraq Qaeda group confirms top figure killed – Web
Reuters – USA
DUBAI, Dec 22 (Reuters) – An al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq has confirmed the death of Abu Maysara, a top operative who the US military said was killed in a …
www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL22300472

US Soldiers Stage Mutiny, Refuse Orders in Iraq
By hyperbola
We speak with a reporter from the Army Times who gives an inside account of how an army unit committed mutiny and refused to carry out orders in Iraq. Channel: News Tags: iraq troops revolt.
news.propeller.com/story/2007/12/22/us
-soldiers-stage-mutiny-refuse-orders-in-iraq

Iraq Kurds say no one hurt in Turkish bombing
Reuters India – Mumbai,India
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) – Turkish warplanes which struck Iraq on Saturday hit an area that has already largely been evacuated, causing no casualties, …
in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-31092020071222

Iraq ‘to end’ US-backed patrols
BBC News – UK
Iraq will not allow US-backed neighbourhood patrols to become a “third force” alongside police and the army, Iraq’s defence minister has said. …
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7157581.stm

War News for Saturday, December 22, 2007
By whisker(Cervantes)
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division – North Soldier during two roadside bombings in an eastern neighborhood of Kirkuk province on Friday, December 21st. Eleven other soldier were wounded in the attack …
warnewstoday.blogspot.com/2007/12/war-
news-for-saturday-december-22-2007.html

Richardson: Clinton has ‘flip-flopped’ on Iraq
By rsinderbrand
AMES, Iowa (CNN) – Bill Richardson is now the latest Democratic presidential candidates to accuse Hillary Clinton of drastically changing her position on Iraq this week. “She’s flip-flopped so many times, I don’t know what her position …
rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_politicalticker/~3/204572917/

US Defence Secretary hopeful of troop reductions in Iraq
Belfast Telegraph – United Kingdom
The US Defence Secretary is hoping better security in Iraq will lead to a reduction in US troop numbers. Robert Gates says he wants a hundred thousand to …
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/brea
king-news/ireland/article3276375.ece

Iraq and How it has Affected Military Tactics
By Herschel Smith
Daniel Roper is just back from three months in Iraq to take over as director of the Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center at Fort Leavenworth. Part of his job is to tweak the doctrine. Part is also to sell its principles to the …
www.captainsjournal.com/2007/12/22/iraq
-and-how-it-has-affected-military-tactics/

Rudd, in Baghdad, Says Australian Troops to Leave Iraq by June
Bloomberg – USA
22 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on an unannounced visit to Iraq, said Australian combat troops will be withdrawn from the nation by the middle …
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206
01081&sid=a8Y8w5Pvmv84&refer=australia

Shiite leaders in Iraq seek to curtail US-backed security groups …
Kansas City Star – MO,USA
By LEILA FADEL BAGHDAD | The leader of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite Muslim political party warned Friday that the security organizations that American…
www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/414167.html

News & Views 12/21/07
By dancewater(Cervantes)
Photo: 1920 Revolution Brigades members grieve for Naseer Salam al Maamouri, their security chief, and two of his bodyguards in Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad , Iraq on Friday, Dec. 21, 2007. …
warnewstoday.blogspot.com/2007/12/news-views-122107.html

Iraq’s Holiday Cheer
Path To Victory: With the season of new hope and good cheer upon us, positive news keeps flowing on Iraq. Yet another skeptic of the war has come…
www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?secid=1501&status
=article&id=283133068786880&secure=1&show=1&rss=1

America -with desert super bases – is to stay in Iraq forever, and …
By bridson
They can do this because Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves, five times the total of the United States. According to experts there may also be another 300 billion barrels of undiscovered oil. In Iraq there has only been …
bridson.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/america-with-desert
-super-bases-is-to-stay-in-iraq-forever-and-the-mainstream-
media-didnt-tell-you/

A Democrat’s new plan for Iraq troop withdrawal: Move them to …
When I was there, there was no doubt they need more troops and there’s no doubt that one reason they can’t get them is they have all the eggs in the Iraq basket. You will not see an increase in troops in Afghanistan if you don’t get a …
blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/2007/
12/a_democrats_new_plan_for_iraq_troop_withdrawal
_move_them_to_afghanistan.html

Rudd to Withdraw Australian Troops From Iraq by June, AFP Says
Bloomberg – USA
22 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in Baghdad yesterday Australian troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by June, Agence France-Presse reported. …
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206010
81&sid=aQdm38ADzIO8&refer=australia

Poland to End Iraq Mission Next Year
The Associated Press –
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president gave his approval Friday to a government plan that would end the country’s military mission in Iraq by October 2008 …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNb0n23
t1idpRPixT9ZFXfoPPqOQD8TM50UG1

Iraq snapshot
By Common Ills(Common Ills)
Travis Lupick (Canada’s Straight) notes the season and, “It will be a lean Christmas for some Iraq-war resisters living in Vancouver. These former US army recruits are waiting on refugee claims and are fighting a return to the US that …
thecommonills.blogspot.com/2007/12/iraq-snapshot_21.html

The Portrait from Iraq – How the Press Has Covered Events on the …
By Shirl Kennedy
Through the first 10 months of the year, the portrait of Iraq that Americans have received from the news media has in considerable measure been a grim one. Roughly half of the reporting has consisted of accounts of daily violence. …
www.docuticker.com/?p=18479