World-News

Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "We have passed the June 30 deadline that, according to a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on November 17, 2008, was the date all US forces were to have been withdrawn from all of Iraq's cities. Today, however, there are at least 134,000 US soldiers in Iraq - a number barely lower than the number that were there in 2003. The SOFA is a sieve, and the number of US military personnel in Iraq is remaining largely intact for now."

http://www.truthout.org/070609J?n



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

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/03-6

Iraq a Failed Imperialist Venture
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/03-13



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joe+Biden
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperial
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Haroon+Siddiqui

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "Two years before the invasion of Iraq, oil executives and foreign policy advisers told the Bush administration that the United States would remain 'a prisoner of its energy dilemma' as long as Saddam Hussein was in power. That April 2001 report, 'Strategic Policy Challenges for the 21st Century,' was prepared by the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy and the US Council on Foreign Relations at the request of then-Vice President Dick Cheney."

http://www.truthout.org/070309J?n



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Council+on+Foreign+Relations
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jason+Leopold

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/07/01-0



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jeremy+Scahill

A spate of unprovoked civilian shootings by Xe-Blackwater personnel in Iraq between 2005 and 2008 are detailed in an amended lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Virginia federal court, according to the Washington, D.C. law firm that represents the families of those killed and wounded in the incidents.

http://snipurl.com/lebxe


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+shooting
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater

By Dennis Kucinich

This is not a great victory for peace. On May 19, the Christian Science Monitor reported that Iraqi and U.S. military officials virtually redrew the city limits of Baghdad in order to consider the Army's Forward Operating Base Falcon as outside the city, despite every map of Baghdad clearly showing it with in city limits.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22959.htm



Neocons Agree: Report Projects Continued U.S. Military Presence in Iraq

By Michael Novinson

When former Republican presidential candidate John McCain said in January 2008 that he would be OK with United States troops in Iraq for another 100 years, Democrats ridiculed him as a warmonger. Now, a report from a "centrist" political think tank predicts that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq well after the current December 2011 withdrawal deadline.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22960.htm



Iraqis are too shrewd to fall for an 'invisible' occupation

US operations will be suspended for a few days to promote the perception that Iraqi forces are actually in control; Ali al-Adeeb, a senior leader of Mr al-Maliki's Dawa party, says the Americans will become "invisible".

http://snipurl.com/lebrv


From Information Clearing House

--------

Veterans for Peace: Veterans Press for Complete Withdrawal of Troops from Iraq
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/07/01



UFPJ: Nation's Largest Antiwar Coalition Calls for Rapid and Total End to U.S. Occupation of Iraq

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/07/02

--------

Iraq Vote Could Oust US Troops Early

Maya Schenwar, Truthout: "As US combat troops retreated from Iraqi urban centers on Tuesday, signs of an incomplete withdrawal abounded. Some soldiers remained in cities, their labels changed from 'combat troops' to 'trainers' or 'advisers,' while others relocated to bases close outside city borders. However, the US-Iraq security pact approved last December requires that every single US troop withdraw from the country by December 31, 2011, and an upcoming referendum vote in Iraq may demand an even quicker deadline."

http://www.truthout.org/070209J?n



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=security+pact
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=combat+troops
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dennis+Kucinich
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=neocons
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Veterans+for+Peace
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=veterans
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ufpj
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Novinson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Maya+Schenwar

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/30-4



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nicole+Johnston

By Jeremy Scahill

The puppet government in Iraq has named June 30 as "National Sovereignty Day," and-without mentioning the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis maimed, killed, tortured or made refugees by the U.S. invasion and occupation-thanked the occupiers for placing them in power.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22951.htm

--------

Made of Lies

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "It began more than six years ago with a lie, followed by another lie, and another lie, and then two more, ten more, a hundred, a thousand, an avalanche of lies from heads of state and hatchet men and well-fed media types more interested in getting the interview than in getting the facts."

http://www.truthout.org/063009R?n

--------

Iraq: What We Leave As We Withdraw
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/30-3

--------

Vietnamization in Iraq

The Libertarian Enterprise
by Jim Davidson

06/29/09

The retreat from the cities has begun, according to CNN. Their reporter on the scene in Iraq did not use the term ‘withdrawal’ or ’strategic retrograde motion,’ but ‘retreat.’ … We are not encountering the first USA military occupation of a foreign country that has become completely unworkable financially and militarily. Another example would be Vietnam...

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle525-20090628-03.html



Iraq: Another of its famous turning points?

Truthdig
by Marie Cocco

06/29/09

As the media trumpets sound for the pullback of American troops from urban areas in Iraq, the essential lesson of our involvement must be recalled: Nothing about our entanglement in Iraq has ever been as it seemed. We did not invade because Saddam Hussein was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as Bush administration officials repeatedly suggested, or even because Iraq threatened the United States with stores of chemical and biological weapons. The 2005 Iraqi election symbolized with images of purple ink stains on voters’ fingertips … did not result in a flourishing democracy or an end to the U.S. military occupation. The bloody insurgency intensified and Bush belatedly deployed additional troops to quell it...

http://tinyurl.com/nkxo74


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=refugee
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jeremy+Scahill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Rivers+Pitt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jodie+Evans
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jim+Davidson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Marie+Cocco

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/29-7

Iraqi Whose Lies Made the Case for War Looks on from Afar
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/29-0



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Martin+Chulove

U.S. forces will continue their patrols in Basra even after the U.S. forces withdrawal from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, said the head of the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team (P.R.T.) in the province, explaining that the patrols are essential for his team's protection.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=115298



Odierno: U.S. troops already out of Iraqi cities

The top US commander in Iraq says the U.S. military has already reached its goal of withdrawing from Iraqi cities by the end of the month.

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/28/odierno-iraqis-ready-for-handover/


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Basra
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Odierno
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw