World-News

Sudarsan Raghavan and Thomas E. Ricks report for The Washington Post, "A confrontation between the US military and the State Department is unfolding over the involvement of Blackwater USA in the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad square Sept. 16, bringing to the surface long-simmering tensions between the military and private security companies in Iraq, according to US military and government officials."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092607C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abu+Ghraib
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sudarsan+Raghavan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Thomas+E.+Ricks

A leading Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of interfering in congressional inquiries into corruption in Iraq's government and the activities of U.S. security firm Blackwater.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN25440506


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Condoleezza+Rice
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater

The Emir of Qatar has said Iraq can no longer remain the responsibility of just one country and called for a strengthening of the United Nations' role there, in a speech that has been seen as a rare public criticism of US policy in Iraq.

http://snipurl.com/1ra14



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

By Agence France Presse

US President George W. Bush threatened nations with retaliation if they did not vote for a UN resolution backing the Iraq war, according to a transcript published Wednesday of a conversation he had with former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18459.htm

Matt Renner reports for Truthout, "Peter Keisler, the acting US attorney general, covered up evidence of alleged widespread contracting fraud in Iraq by preventing whistleblowers' complaints from being investigated, according to a prominent fraud attorney."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092607J.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contracting+fraud
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=DOJ
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Matt+Renner

The American Conservative
by Gregory Cochran

09/24/07

Politicians, for the most part, have accepted statements about withdrawal requiring anywhere from one to two years. They want to be ‘responsible’ — that’ll be the day. Some may have calculated that slow withdrawal might better disguise defeat and thus be more politically palatable, but I don’t think many are that Machiavellian. I think instead that, with a few honorable exceptions, they’re profoundly ignorant of war and thus have to blindly accept anything the professional military says. That ignorance is, of course, one of the reasons we got into this mess in the first place. That goes double for columnists: in pundit-land, a military expert is someone who thinks that the phalanx is cutting-edge technology. The bottom line is that we can get troops and war-fighting equipment out of Iraq rapidly and relatively safely, certainly in less than six months, probably in three...

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_09_24/cover.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=withdrawal+Iraq
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gregory+Cochran

Salon
by Walter Shapiro

09/26/07

It is time to face the blunt truth: This Congress, despite its nominal Democratic majorities, is not going to hasten the end of the Iraq war. This is not defeatism on the home front nor is it a rant against the accommodationist tactics of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Rather, this inescapable conclusion is based on the coin of the realm on Capitol Hill — the stark arithmetic of head counts...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/09/26/congress_v_iraq/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Harry+Reid
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Walter+Shapiro

The US Senate is expected to vote as early as Tuesday on a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.

http://snipurl.com/1r86a



Now we have Article 41

They crossed the high seas; they poured out their billions; they sacrificed their sons .. to "liberate" Iraqis .. but what we, the women of Iraq got, is article 41.

http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/iraq/2007/09/now-we-have-art.html



Iraq MPs oppose US division plan

Two Iraqi parliamentary blocs have enunciated opposition to a US plan aiming to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, notably Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. The US Senate was expected to vote as early as Tuesday on a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.

http://snipurl.com/1ra12



Iraq VP dismisses subdivision plans

Visiting Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdel-Mahdi here Thursday dismissed Iraq subdivision plans, saying the country has been united for 5,000 years.

http://snipurl.com/1rbv9



Arab League condemns U.S. Senate view to segregate Iraq

The Arab League condemned Thursday the U.S. Senate view to separate Iraq into several sectarian parts, saying that the decision was reflecting a grim vision for the future of the fellow Arab country.

http://snipurl.com/1rbvb



US in Iraq in 2013? Democrats say maybe

All three leading candidates conceded that they could not guarantee that all U.S. combat troops would be gone from Iraq by 2013, the end of the next president's first term in office.

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1448626.html



US plans $2.3bn arms sale to Iraq

The US is ready to sell Iraq up to $2.3bn of weapons to help the Iraqi army grow and take over operations currently run by US and allied forces, the Pentagon has said.

http://snipurl.com/1rbvc



Iraq PM rejects U.S. Congress call for federalism

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday a U.S. Senate resolution calling for the creation of separate Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish federal regions in Iraq would be a disaster for his country.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28122016.htm



Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis reject US partition idea

Shiite and Sunni figures in Iraq dismissed Saturday a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, while the Kurds welcomed it as the "only viable solution" to the present chaos.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=22439



Let's Try Partitioning The US

By Linda S. Heard

Isn't Iraq supposed to be a sovereign nation with an elected government? If so, then why is the US Senate attempting to meddle in its affairs by overwhelmingly passing a resolution calling for the country's partition into three, which is tantamount to ethnic cleansing?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18493.htm


From Information Clearing House

--------

Senate Endorses Plan to Divide Iraq

Reporting for The Washington Post, Shailagh Murray says, "Showing rare bipartisan consensus over war policy, the Senate overwhelmingly endorsed a political settlement for Iraq that would divide the country into three semi-autonomous regions."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092607R.shtml



Iraq PM: Senate Proposal "a Catastrophe"

CBS News: "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday rejected a US Senate proposal calling for the decentralization of Iraq's government and giving more control to the country's ethnically divided regions, calling it 'a catastrophe.'"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092807S.shtml



Senate Vote Unites Iraqis in Anger

Ned Parker and Raheem Salman, of The Los Angeles Times, report: "Iraq's political leadership, in a rare show of unity, skewered a nonbinding US Senate resolution passed last week that endorses the decentralization of Iraq through the establishment of semiautonomous regions. The measure, which calls for a relatively weak central government and strong regional authorities in Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish areas, has touched a nerve here, raising fears that the United States is planning to partition Iraq."

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

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US embassy rips Senate’s Iraq partition plan

Arizona Republic

10/01/07

The U.S. embassy on Sunday criticized a U.S. Senate resolution that could lead to a division of Iraq into sectarian or ethnic territories, agreeing with many Iraqi leaders in saying the proposal ‘would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed.’ The statement came hours after representatives of Iraq’s major political parties denounced the proposal that calls for power to be given to Shiite, Sunni or Kurdish regions. ‘Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united, democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself,’ the statement said...

http://tinyurl.com/3d4dr5


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Shailagh+Murray
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ned+Parker

Tennessean

09/24/07

A Hendersonville native began grieving the loss of her soldier husband only one day after giving birth in Nashville to the couple’s first child, a son. Spc. Joshua Reeves, 26, of Watkinsville, Ga., died Sept. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan., according to the U.S. Department of Defense Website. His wife, Leslie Reeves, a 2001 graduate of Hendersonville High School and a graduate of the University of Georgia, had been living in Hendersonville since her husband’s deployment in January...

http://tinyurl.com/34kzmr


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp