World-News

Leila Fadel reports for McClatchy Newspapers: "When Leila Nasser was six months pregnant, US soldiers burst into her house and wrestled away her husband, Mohammed Amin, who was asleep on the roof, trying to escape the summer heat....Now Amin was one of 15 detainees who'd be released as part of a reconciliation program that the US military's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment put together in hopes of easing tensions in this divided neighborhood. But the release showed how far reconciliation has to go."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107P.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Leila+Fadel

A recent decline in U.S. news coverage from Iraq coincides with improved public opinion about the war just as the 2008 presidential campaign heads to an early showdown, a study released on Wednesday said.

http://snipurl.com/1vmi8



Secret Air War Confirmed

The US has drastically escalated its aerial assault on Iraq and Afghanistan, below the radar of the corporate media.

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2007/12/secret-air-war-confirmed.html



The truth behind the Surge

The so-called 'Surge', and its alleged success, are based on two fundamental tactics: the first one is the so-called 'Redirection' which consists of buying off the Sunni resistance, including all those groups who only yesterday were called 'terrorists'; the second new tactic is massive increasing in the use of airpower.

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2007/12/truth-behind-surge.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=airpower
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

The Russian president said the Iraqi people, though a small population, are proud, and took the US-UK military occupation as a particular offense to their country, creating problems never seen in that country before.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=35687&sectionid=351020602


From Information Clearing House

According to a focus group conducted for the U.S. military last month, Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of "occupying forces" as the key to national reconciliation.

http://snipurl.com/1vmi5


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=sectarian

Kimberly Hefling for The Associated Press, reports on the suicide of Pfc. Jason Scheuerman who, "nailed a suicide note to his barracks closet in Iraq, stepped inside and shot himself." Hefling reports on his family's battle with military bureaucracy to understand why their son died.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122007T.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=suicides
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kimberly+Hefling

Cara Buckley, reporting for The New York Times, writes from Baghdad: "The widow Hashim crossed the border into Iraq from Syria at dusk last month, heading homeward as the sun set behind her and the sky ahead grew dark. Her dwindling savings had bought her family passage aboard a crowded bus, but there was no telling what awaited her at journey's end. The only sure thing was that she would have to look for a new home and a job in a city starved for work and crudely reshaped by war."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122007D.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=refugees

Raed Jarrar and Joshua Holland write for AlterNet, "On Tuesday, the Bush administration and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pushed a resolution through the U.N. Security Council extending the mandate that provides legal cover for foreign troops to operate in Iraq for another year."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122007A.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Raed+Jarrar
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joshua+Holland

AlterNet
by Stephen Zunes

12/19/07

Public opinion polls have consistently shown that the majority of Americans — and even a larger majority of Democrats — believe that Iraq is the most important issue of the day, that it was wrong for the United States to have invaded that country, and the United States should completely withdraw its forces in short order. Despite this, the clear front-runner for the Democratic Party nomination for president is Senator Hillary Clinton, a strident backer of the invasion who only recently and opportunistically began to criticize the war and call for a partial withdrawal of American forces. As a result, it is important to review Senator Clinton’s past and current positions regarding the Iraq War. Indeed, despite her efforts in response to public opinion polls to come across as an opponent of the war, Hillary Clinton has proven to be one of the most hard-line Democratic senators in support of a military response to the challenges posed by Iraq. She has also been less than honest in justifying her militaristic policies, raising concerns that she might support military interventions elsewhere...

http://www.alternet.org/audits/70416/


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hillary

By Dahr Jamail

People in the US are willing to believe the establishment media telling them that refugees are returning to their homes in Baghdad in an environment of improved security and new hope.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18925.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=refugees
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dahr+Jamail

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/19/5908/

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Senate Hands Bush Another Blank Check for Iraq

Truthout's Maya Schenwar reports, "The Senate approved $70 billion to continue funding the occupation of Iraq on Tuesday night, backtracking on earlier promises made by Democratic leaders to set a timetable for withdrawal from the region before giving the White House another blank check."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121907A.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+funding
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdrawal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Maya+Schenwar