NewsTrust - Iraq - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Another Mysterious Electrocution Death in Iraq

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeremy Scahill - Sep. 09 (News) - Hermanson was not killed by enemy fire or an improvised explosive device or even by "friendly fire." In fact, he died in what is considered to be the safest place in Iraq for Americans--the heavily fortified Green Zone. His body, according to his family, was discovered on the floor of a shower near his quarters at Camp Olympia. It appears that Hermanson was electrocuted.

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US Increasing Personnel in Iraq

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Walter Pincus - Sep. 08 (News) - As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

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Iraqi Refugees Find US Life Not What They Expected

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Alexandra Zavis - Aug. 24 (News) - Her husband had disappeared in the war. Her request to settle in Jordan had been denied. Now an advisor from the International Organization for Migration was telling her no U.S. firm would recognize her law degree or her nearly two decades of experience.

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The Sheikh Down

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Shane Bauer - Aug. 24 (Special Report) - The US military has never admitted to arming militias in Iraq—or giving anything more than $350 a month to Anbari tribesmen to fight alongside Americans against Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda. But reconstruction payments, sometimes handed out in shrink-wrapped bundles of $100 bills, have left plenty of extra for the sheikhs to "help themselves as far as security goes," as one Marine officer describes it, or "buy guns," as Eifan's uncle, Sheikh Talib Hasnawi, puts it.

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Iraq: Talk is Cheap, Blood is Cheaper

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - By Jamal Dajani - Aug. 18 (News Analysis) - It is now apparent that the Iraqi insurgency has adapted to what the U.S. and Iraqi forces have been throwing at it. When the surge was in full swing in and around Baghdad, the Iraqi insurgency retreated, but since June 30, when U.S. troops in Iraq withdrew from urban centers, some insurgents moved right back in, while others shifted their attention to the Iraqi north. A cat and mouse game.

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Sometimes It’s Not Your War, But You Sacrifice Anyway

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By T. Christian Miller - Aug. 17 (News Report) - These low-paid foreign workers face many of the same risks soldiers do. Mortars have killed Filipinos who served meals in mess halls. Assassins have targeted Iraqis translating for soldiers. Roadside bombs have ripped into trucks driven by Turkish

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Jamal Dajani: Iraq: Talk is Cheap, Blood is Cheaper

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Aug. 14 (News Analysis) - It was not long ago that the "surge" in Iraq was cause for praise and a measure of success during the U.S. presidential race. Some in the U.S. Congress have even argued that the "surge" is a recipe that could be exported to Afghanistan to defeat the

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Blackwater Heir Wants to Keep State Dept. Security Contract

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Aug. 10 (News Report) - Even as a wrongful-death lawsuit moves forward against the controversial private security company formerly known as Blackwater, the firm seeks to renew its contract with the State Department to guard diplomats when the deal expires next year.

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New Iraqi Shiite Coalition coming together

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Aug. 09 (News Report) - Ahead of January?s parliamentary elections, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a leader of the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq (ISCI) announced that the United Iraqi Alliance will announce five coalition partners next week. They include the Sadr Movement of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Islah Party of former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, the Badr Organization (the political wing of the Badr Corps paramilitary attached to ISCI), section of the Da`wa Party- Iraq Organization, and ISCI itself. These are all fundamentalist Shiite parties. ISCI continues to reject the demand of the Islamic Da`wa Party of current prime minister Nuri al-Maliki for more seats in parliament within the UIA coalition, and for a lock on the prime ministership. The significance of the report ...

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Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeremy Scahill - Aug. 04 (News) - Sworn statements filed in Federal Court allege that Blackwater founder Erik Prince launched a "crusade" to eliminate Muslims and Islam and that the company may have been involved in murders to suppress information from federal investigators.

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The Cowboys of Kabul

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Daniel Schulman - Jul. 28 (Special Report) - Although their circumstances looked dire, the Spiers were about to become millionaires. By May, Barbara Spier had filed the paperwork to form a new corporation called US Protection and Investigations. Soon, thanks to the contracting sweepstakes that was the war in Afghanistan, she was signing an $8.4 million deal with the Louis Berger Group. The multinational construction and engineering company had landed a $214 million contract to rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure—roads, water and sanitation, power and dams—from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USPI's job was to provide security for contractors repairing a 300-mile road stretching from Kabul to Kandahar.

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Blackwater Seeks Gag Order

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jeremy Scahill - Jul. 22 (News) - It became common practice during the Iraq occupation for the US State Department to work with private security companies like Blackwater to help facilitate giving what amounted to hush money to the families of Iraqis shot dead by private security contractors. In fact, Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince, discussed this practice when he testified in front of Congress in October 2007 and admitted to paying $20,000 to a Blackwater victim's family and $5,000 to another.

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Will Iraq Be a Global Gas Pump?

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Michael T. Klare - Jul. 17 (Special Report) - Iraq's great hydrocarbon promise has been continually thwarted by war, foreign intervention, sanctions, internal disorder, corruption, and plain old ineptitude. Saddam Hussein did succeed for a time in elevating oil output, in the process raising national income and creating a well-educated middle class. However, his ill-conceived invasions of Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990 led to devastating attacks on Iraqi oil facilities, as well as trade embargoes and crippling debt, erasing much of his country's previous economic gains. The trade sanctions imposed by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the wake of the First Gulf War only further eroded the country's oil-production capacity.

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Most Iraqis Want Quick US Withdrawal

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Paul Jay, Mike Tharp - Jul. 06 (News Analysis) - The phased U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq can’t come soon enough for many Iraqis who blame the American-led invasion in 2003 for the massive loss of life and the devastation of their country.

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Daily Show Iran | Colbert Report Iraq

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Thomas Mucha - Jul. 02 (News Analysis) - It’s been a fascinating few weeks for global news — the real kind, of course — but also for the fake stuff. I’m referring to "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," which sent correspondents and producers to locales where comedy shows don't normally operate: Iran and Iraq. Along the way, these two Comedy Central commercial properties cooked up plenty of laughs. But they also produced some insightful — and certainly entertaining — coverage of these two complex and important global stories.

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Selling Confidence in Iraq

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - Jul. 02 (News Analysis) - Iraq celebrates the withdrawal of American troops from cities and villages. More than 250 people were killed in bombings over the past 10 days. Will the "enemies of Iraq" succeed in igniting sectarian violence? And will democracy survive in Iraq?

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Saddam Feared Iran More Than US: FBI Notes

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Kim Gamel - Jul. 02 (News Report) - The documents also confirm previous reports that Saddam falsely allowed the world to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction _ the main U.S. rationale behind the war _ because he feared revealing his weakness to Iran, the hostile neighbor he considered a bigger threat than the U.S.

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Selling Confidence in Iraq

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Jul. 01 (News Analysis) - As Iraqi forces took control of towns and cities across the country on June 30, a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk exploded, killing at least 33 people and injuring more than 100, serving as a grim reminder of the security challenges that Iraqis face following US troop pullout. Kirkuk was also the scene of two suicide bombings last month in which 14 people were killed. It is the center of northern Iraq's oil industry and home to a volatile mix of Kurds, Arabs, Christians and members of the Turkmen community.

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In Iraq, Colbert shaves head, declares victory

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

airforcetimes.com - By By Kim Gamel - The Associated Press - Jun. 08 (News Report) - Celebrities have frequently traveled to Iraq to entertain the troops. But the series of half-hour shows — dubbed “Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando” — mark the first time anyone has broadcast a taped show from Iraq from a tour intended to entertain U.S. troops.

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Anbar Police Chief Attacked; Talabani visits ailing al-Hakim in Tehran

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Jun. 07 (News Report) - A suicide bomber with a bomb belt attempted to kill the police chief of al-Anbar Province, Tariq al-Asal, in the city of Ramadi on Saturday. The bombing killed his bodyguard and wounded two others, and left al-Asal with only minor injuries. Sunni guerrillas are increasingly using teenaged boys to carry out grenade and even suicide attacks on US and Iraqi troops in Iraq. They are useful because if the US troops fire at the attacker, they may well be blamed for killing an adolescent.

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Attacks on the Press in 2008: United States - Committee to Protect Journalists

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

cpj.org - Jun. 06 (News Report) - U.S. government actions against journalists abroad continued to sully the nation’s image. Authorities finally freed two long-detained journalists, one in Iraq and the other at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without ever charging them with a crime or producing any evidence to support the imprisonments. But the military continued its alarming practice of holding journalists in open-ended detention without due process. At least one journalist was being held without charge when CPJ conducted its annual census of imprisoned journalists.

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Obama reverses on release of abuse photos

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - May. 15 (News Analysis) - President Barack Obama announced his administration was reversing course about the release of photographs depicting the abuse of foreign prisoners. We're rating this the first Full Flop of the Obama presidency.

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The Iraq War's Other Contractors

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Carol Burke - May. 04 (News Analysis) - The most impressive contracting effort of the Iraq War to date is not the shoveling of treasure to Halliburton, but rather the low-profile hiring of over 100,000 Sons of Iraq over the last two years to guard the towns, neighborhoods and highways of Iraq. The future of Iraq rests on what happens to these insurgents we turned into peacekeepers.

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New UN Report Shows the US Combo of Torture and Impunity Thrives in Iraqi Prisons

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

rebelreports.com - By Jeremy Scahill - Apr. 30 (Special Report) - Part of the deadly serious problem with the Obama administration’s position on (not) holding accountable CIA torturers, their lawyers and the Bush administration officials who authorized and ordered all of these crimes is this: It sends a message to other governments that if Washington does it, we can too. Especially governments completely created by the US government.

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Iraq War presented opportunity and danger for Largo doctor

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

St. Petersburg Times - By Susan Taylor Martin - Apr. 26 (Special Report) - Before he left his Largo home that day, Said Hakki gave his wife a sealed envelope. She put it on top of the bookcase, next to his Florida medical license. "To be opened if captured or kidnapped," read the tidy handwriting. "Said Ismail Hakky, December 22, 2004." Hakki, a urologist on leave from the Bay Pines VA Medical Center, had already spent 18 months in his native Iraq helping rebuild the country's ravaged health care system. After a brief visit home to Florida, he was returning to a far more dangerous assignment: heading the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization.

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