World-News

The report, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the issues the three sides are too far apart to agree on are the "role of foreign companies in the oil sector" and the division of the oil profits.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/secret-report-n.html



Iraqi PM urges parliament to cancel or limit summer break to pass laws seen as crucial by US

One on the distribution of oil and another on how to handle former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party.

http://tinyurl.com/yrjrqm



Iraq unions vow 'mutiny' over oil law

"This law cancels the great achievements of the Iraq people," Subhi al-Badri, head of the Iraqi Federation of Union Councils, told the al-Sharqiyah TV station. He referred specifically to laws that nationalized Iraq's oil sector.

http://www.upi.com/Energy/Briefing/2007/07/20/iraq_unions_vow_mutiny_over_oil_law/



Hassan Jumaa, President of Iraqi Federation of Oil Union

Video

Hassan describes the Union's campaign against the proposed Hydrocarbon Law, which will see much of Iraq's oil wealth fall into the hands of foreign oil companies.

http://tinyurl.com/2d5j9a


From Information Clearing House



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

Early troop pullout could force return to Iraq: US military

Several high-ranking military chiefs have asked for more time in Iraq, as Congress and US public opinion grow impatient with the war, but Conway insisted that a US retreat without some show of success will be viewed as a victory for Al-Qaeda.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070720/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary


From Information Clearing House

There are two coalition armies in Iraq: the official one, which fights the war, and the private one, which supports it.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0718/p01s02-usmi.html?s=u2


From Information Clearing House



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

A U.S. Marine guilty of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi grandfather last year was sentenced on Friday to a reduction in rank to private and a bad-conduct discharge with no additional time in prison, according to a U.S. Marine Corps statement.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20313693.htm


From Information Clearing House



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

"Top Senate Democrats expect GOP to face rising public pressure to withdraw troops," write Paul Kane and Shailagh Murray of The Washington Post.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007D.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=withdrawal+Iraq
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Harry+Reid
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP

Keith Olbermann lambastes President Bush for choosing Hilary Clinton as a scapegoat for the quagmire in Iraq on his nightly MSNBC Countdown.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007A.shtml



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

Santa Cruz Sentinel

07/19/07

Iraq is a nation gripped by fear and struggling to meet security and political goals by September, U.S. officials said Thursday from Baghdad, dashing hopes in Congress that the country might turn a corner this summer. One general said not to expect a solid judgment on the U.S. troop buildup until November. ‘If there is one word, I would use to sum up the atmosphere in Iraq — on the streets, in the countryside, in the neighborhoods and at the national level — that word would be ‘fear,” Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

http://tinyurl.com/2ejq4p


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Tony Blair had three conversations with the media magnate Rupert Murdoch in the nine days before the start of the Iraq war, the Government has disclosed.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2782514.ece


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tony+Blair
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Murdoch