World-News

American flags were set on fire Friday to chants of "no, no for occupation" as followers of an anti-U.S. Shiite cleric marked the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq



Intelligence made it clear Saddam was not a threat, diplomat tells MPs

Ross's evidence, by video link from New York, came days after Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary at the time, used the first ministerial veto under the freedom of information act to ban the release of cabinet minutes on the decision to go to war.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/20/saddam-hussein-iraq-war-legality



From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jack+Straw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Freedom+of+Information+Act

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance167.html

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Remember

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "Six years ago, the United States of America began the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Since then, 4,259 American soldiers have been killed and tens of thousands more have been wounded. There is no accurate accounting of Iraqi dead and wounded, because as we were told, we do not do body counts. Because the Bush administration left its Iraq expenditures off the budget, and because of the tremendous amount of war-profiteering, graft and theft that has been involved, we do not know exactly how much we have spent. For the record, 2,192 days later, this is how we got here."

http://www.truthout.org/032009J



A Colonel, a Diplomat and a Peace Activist

Ann Wright, Truthout: "It was six years ago today that I resigned from the Bush administration and the US diplomatic corps in opposition to the war on Iraq. I remember the day so well. I woke up about 2 in the morning. Like so many mornings in the past months, I could not sleep through the night. I was very worried and upset hearing the comments out of Washington, that we, the US government, were being forced into taking military action against Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi government."

http://www.truthout.org/032009A



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+profiteering
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/vance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Rivers+Pitt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ann+Wright

The stench of human waste is enough to tell Falah abu Hasan that his drinking water is bad. His infant daughter Fatma's continuous illnesses and his own constant nausea confirm it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090318/wl_mcclatchy/3191674


From Information Clearing House

The military says the Americans fired two warning shots when the vehicle ignored signals for it to stop near the Hurriyah Iraqi police station.

http://www.business24-7.ae/articles/2009/3/pages/iraqigirlkilledinusshooting.aspx


From Information Clearing House



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

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/17-3



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Yifat+Susskind

Iraq: U.S. troops to stay in insecure areas

U.S. troops will not be removed from areas of Iraq that are not completely secure or where there is a high probability that attacks could resume after the Americans leave, Iraq's prime minister said Sunday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29705936/



U.S. Troops to Be Active in Iraq After Pullback

American forces will still conduct joint combat operations even after they pull back to bases outside Baghdad and other cities as part of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, a spokesman said Sunday.

http://snipurl.com/dwj81


From Information Clearing House



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

Philip Bennett, The Washington Post: "What do Iraqis call the war that is now entering its seventh year? If you can't answer that question, it's not because you haven't been paying attention. In this country, the Iraq war has been an American story. It was born inside the Beltway. Its costs in suffering have been most visible to us at gravesides across the United States, or in the wards of Walter Reed. A growing library of histories of the war chronicles battle after bitter battle between factions of official Washington, skirmishing over ideas, strategy, about how we got in and how to get out. As the war has gone on, Iraqis' stories have been overshadowed by the towering drama of our own experience. The imbalance struck me as I recently read and revisited some of the best books to grow out of American journalism on Iraq since the invasion began on March 19, 2003. They are rich in raw, unblinking dispatches from alongside US troops and investigative digging into the thinking of US leaders - overall, a remarkable record of a continuing conflict. But they also reflect how frustration and isolation, including the isolation of journalists, have reduced Iraqis to a narrow cast of supporting roles: ungrateful partners, untrustworthy supplicants, invisible enemies and unreadable victims."

http://www.truthout.org/031409Y



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Philip+Bennett

Intelligence chiefs criticised 'iffy drafting' of key document

By Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor

Officials privately mocked assertions that the Iraqi president was covertly trying to develop a nuclear capability and wisecracked that perhaps he had recruited "Dr Frankenstein" to his supposed crack team of nuclear scientists.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22203.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nigel+Morris

The War is Not Over

By John Ross

The first step in this charade of false closure is Obama's drawdown. The next is to make the citizens of the occupying power forget Iraq ever happened - a brainwashing that has been in process since the "success" of Bush's "surge." One problem though: how do you brainwash the brain dead?

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22197.htm



Memo told Blair Aides Saddam Hussein Posed no Imminent Threat

By Paul Waugh

Intelligence experts explicitly warned Tony Blair's aides that Britain was not in "imminent danger of attack" from Saddam Hussein, a confidential memo revealed today.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22198.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tony+Blair
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Waugh

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said that continuing the fight against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul might lead to U.S. troops remaining in the city past a June 30, 2009 deadline for all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraqi cities.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7037897&page=1


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Odierno
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=combat+troops