World-News

Defense Secretary Robert Gates

On a surprise visit to Baghdad, Gates said Iraqi officials have acknowledged that they might need American military support past 2011.

http://snipurl.com/o8pqq


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Gates

Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "Just like the myth of Iraq's 'sovereignty,' the myth of US withdrawal is just that. Until the latter occurs, the former does not stand a chance. This is particularly so, as long as Iraq, like Afghanistan, are arenas where the US military is being used to 'ensure that all major and emerging powers are integrated as constructive actors and stakeholders into the international system.'"

http://www.truthout.org/072909A?n



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

Soldiers from an Army unit that had 10 infantrymen accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday.

http://snipurl.com/o2cwb


From Information Clearing House



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

By Ray McGovern

Seven years ago this week, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair gathered his top national security advisers at 10 Downing St. to hear a report from U.K. intelligence chief Richard Dearlove, just back in London from face-to-face talks with then-CIA Director George Tenet in Washington.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23137.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tony+Blair
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Richard+Dearlove
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=George+Tenet
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern

Dave Philipps, The Colorado Springs Gazette: "Before the murders started, Anthony Marquez's mom dialed his sergeant at Fort Carson to warn that her son was poised to kill. It was February 2006, and the 21-year-old soldier had not been the same since being wounded and coming home from Iraq eight months before. He had violent outbursts and thrashing nightmares. He was devouring pain pills and drinking too much. He always packed a gun. 'It was a dangerous combination. I told them he was a walking time bomb,' said his mother, Teresa Hernandez."

http://www.truthout.org/072709B?n



Casualties of War: Warning Signs

Dave Philipps, The Colorado Springs Gazette: "After coming home from Iraq, 21-year-old medic Bruce Bastien was driving with his Army buddy Louis Bressler, 24, when they spotted a woman walking to work on a Colorado Springs street. Bressler swerved and hit the woman with the car, according to police, then Bastien jumped out and stabbed her over and over. It was October 2007. A fellow soldier, Kenneth Eastridge, 24, watched it all from the passenger seat."

http://www.truthout.org/072809C?n



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=casualties
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dave+Philipps

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/24



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw

San Antonio Express-News

07/20/09

The Iraqi military has turned down requests from American forces to move unescorted through Baghdad and conduct a raid since the transition of responsibility for urban security at the end of last month, an Iraqi military commander said Monday. U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban areas on June 30 under a security agreement with Iraq that requires all U.S. troops to be out of the country by the end of 2011...

http://tinyurl.com/n738np


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=security+agreement
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw

About 23 per cent of Iraqis live in poverty, meaning that they are forced to survive on $2.2 a day or less, according to government figures.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/200972052636416787.html


From Information Clearing House

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

07/20/09

If President Obama is serious about getting out of Iraq, and if he truly respects Iraqi sovereignty – if his ascension to the presidency is really all about changing our imperial foreign policy — then Gen. Bolger should be called on the carpet and summarily canned. It hasn’t happened, and it won’t happen, for the simple reason that Iraqi sovereignty is a myth as long as the U.S. occupation force remains. The fact that a single U.S. commander can unilaterally decide to break the SOFA and essentially tell the Iraqis to go screw themselves indicates that the American Raj is not ready to withdraw just yet. Was withdrawal from Iraq just another campaign promise, made to be broken – like Obama’s pledges on government secrecy and other civil liberties issues? The president’s record, so far, does not bode well for an answer in the negative...

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/07/19/back-to-iraq/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperial
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreign+policy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civil+liberties
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo

Mike Tharp, McClatchy Newspapers: "Once the cradle of agriculture for civilization, the Land Between Two Rivers - the Tigris and Euphrates - has become a basket case for its farmers. Just ask Naji Habeeb, 85. His family has been growing rice in this village 135 miles southeast of Baghdad for generations. Thin green shoots stick out of the flat paddies, shin-deep in brown water. The Iraqi government, he claims, still owes him half of what he's due from last year's crop."

http://www.truthout.org/071909F?n



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Tharp