World-News

Steve Fainaru reports for The Washington Post, "Most of the more than 100 private security companies in Iraq open fire far more frequently than has been publicly acknowledged and rarely report such incidents to US or Iraqi authorities, according to US officials and current and former private security company employees."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100307B.shtml

Some 64 percent opposed Australian soldiers serving in Iraq and 73 percent said it made the nation a terror target, according to a survey by the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=ag9sf2eBYimg



America in Iraq: The 10-Year Plan

The exact parameters of the deals for each country are classified. But generally the agreements function like 10-year protection contracts saying that the United States will guarantee the security of a signatory country. In return, the United States is allowed to base troops, dock ships and store military hardware in those countries in furtherance of its efforts to project force in the Middle East.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1667224,00.html


From Information Clearing House

By Agence France Press

Two US Army subcontractors accused of torturing prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail go to court Wednesday in a case that highlights the murky legal status of private US companies in Iraq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18496.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractors
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abu+Ghraib
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

Jonathan Weisman, of the Washington Post, reports "the House, with overwhelming, bipartisan support, voted yesterday to give the Bush administration two months to present to Congress its planning for the withdrawal of combat forces in Iraq. The 377 to 46 vote was the first salvo of a new legislative strategy adopted by House Democratic leaders, away from partisan confrontation and toward a more incremental approach to war policy that can bring Republicans to their side. The withdrawal-planning bill had met fierce opposition this summer from ardent Iraq war foes, who scuttled an earlier vote by saying it would do nothing but give Republicans political cover for their support of President Bush's policies."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100307K.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdrawal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jonathan+Weisman

AntiWar.Com
by Charles Pena

10/03/07

Once upon a time, White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey estimated that the cost of going to war in Iraq might be as much as $200 billion. For daring to voice such an opinion, he was rebuked by Mitch Daniels — then director of the White House budget office — who called Lindsey’s estimate ‘very, very high’ and ‘the upper end of hypothetical.’ Lindsey resigned three months later. In contrast, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — citing Office of Management and Budget estimates — thought the Iraq war would cost ’something under $50 billion.’ And let’s not forget that former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz believed that Iraqi oil revenues of $50-$100 billion, not U.S. taxpayer dollars, would pay for the occupation and reconstruction...

http://www.antiwar.com/pena/?articleid=11702


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rumsfeld
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wolfowitz
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Charles+Pena
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/pena

William Fisher reports for Truthout, "as the government's fiscal year came to an end last week, the Bush administration had resettled only slightly more than 10 percent of the 7,000 Iraqi refugees it pledged to help - and an even tinier fraction of the estimated two million men, women and children who have fled to Jordan, Syria and other neighboring countries or the additional two million who have been internally displaced by ethnic and religious violence within their own country."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100207N.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Fisher

CNN says, "The State Department's initial report of last month's incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100207S.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractors

The number of Iraqis driven from their homes by war and sectarian violence could be far larger than official estimates of the country's deepening humanitarian crisis, some experts say.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01324071.htm


From Information Clearing House

The New York Times's David Stout and John M. Broder say, "Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot innocent Iraqi civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with the help of the State Department, a report prepared for a Congressional committee said today."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100107T.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Stout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+M.+Broder

The U.S. government quietly gave a $485 mln security contract for Iraq to a private British firm within the week that U.S. contractors were accused of opening fire on and killing Iraqi civilians.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01380420.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractors
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater