18 December, 2008
Iraqi Government Seeks Criminal Prosecution
Of Anti-Bush Protestor
By James CoganMuntadhar al-Zaidi, the 29-year-old journalist who, in an act of protest, hurled his shoes at George Bush during a press conference on Sunday, was hauled before an investigating judge of the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad yesterday
15 December, 2008
Total Defeat For U.S. In Iraq
By Patrick CockburnThe Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed after eight months of rancorous negotiations, is categorical and unconditional. Americas bid to act as the worlds only super-power and to establish quasi-colonial control of Iraq, an attempt which began with the invasion of 2003, has ended in failure. There will be a national referendum on the new agreement next July, but the accord is to be implemented immediately so the poll will be largely irrelevant
06 December, 2008
Iraq's US Security Charade
By Ramzy BaroudWorld media rashly celebrated the "historic" security pact that allows for US troops to stay in Iraq for three more years after the Iraqi parliament ratified the agreement on Thursday, 27 November. The approval came one week after the Iraqi cabinet did the same
25 November, 2008
U.S. Would Control Profits From Iraqi
Oil Exports Under Agreement
By Jeremy R. HammondThe terms of the Status of Forces Agreement effectively allow the U.S. to continue to control billions of dollars of proceeds from the sale of exported Iraqi oil held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It also contains numerous loopholes that could allow the continuing long-term presence of U.S. military forces and would effectively maintain U.S. jurisdiction over crimes committed by American soldiers
31 October, 2008
Iraqi Cabinet Stalls On US Security Agreement
By James CoganProgress toward the signing of a bilateral US-Iraqi security agreement sanctioning a continued American military presence in Iraq has stalled again. On Tuesday, the Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki officially rejected the pact which had been formulated through months of tortured negotiations between American and Iraqi officials
26 October, 2008
Iraq In The Times Of Cholera… And Occupation
By Sabah AliWith all the tragedies that the occupation brought to Iraq, the last thing it needs now is an epidemic, the cholera which is spreading in big numbers
24 October, 2008
Wrecked Iraq
By Michael SchwartzWhat the good news from Iraq really means
23 October, 2008
Will You Publish This Story?
By Nida MariamLubna, a young woman from Baghdad, mother of four, stranded in Cairo, narrates her ordeals to Nida Mariam
17 October, 2008
The Forgotten U.S. War On The Iraqi People
By Ghali HassanOn October 3, 2008, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is paying $300 million to U.S. contractors to produce pro-U.S. propaganda for Iraqi audiences “in an effort to ‘engage and inspire’ the local population to support U.S. objectives and the puppet government”. The aim of this psychological warfare is to normalise the murderous Occupation and cover-up the slaughter of innocent Iraqi civilians
26 September, 2008
Iraq: The Biggest Hospitals Become Sick
By Arkan Hamed & Dahr JamailNot even the elevators work now at Baghdad Medical City, built once as the centre for some of the best medical care
26 August, 2008
Iraq: Sectarian Clashes Flare Up Again
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailA military operation said to target al-Qaeda has ended up targeting Sunni Muslims instead, creating new sectarian tensions
14 August, 2008
Has The Surge Prevented Peace?
By Dan LiebermanRealignment of forces without reconciliation of populations spells confrontation. A 'surge' that made all this possible seems to have made reconciliation less possible, which translates into a ‘surge” that has provided additional obstacles to peace and stability
08 August, 2008
The Tragic Last Moments Of Margaret Hassan
By Robert FiskWhen a renowned British aid worker was kidnapped in Iraq, the world was horrified. Her body was never recovered, but her execution was captured on video and sent to Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite channel. Robert Fisk watched it and reveals why it has never been broadcast
Iraq: Iran Gains From Power Cuts
By Ahmed Ali and Dahr JamailThe crisis over electricity failure grows as summer temperatures climb and a drought plagues Iraq. It is a crisis Iran is using to help Iraqis where the U.S. has failed
06 August, 2008
New Operation Gets Surprise Support
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailA massive military operation in Diyala province has underscored the military and political gains by the Sahwa militia, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's earlier attempts to thwart them. Maliki has now apparently come around to involving the Sahwa rather than opposing them
02 August, 2008
Iraq: Police Bombings Raise New Fears
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailAstonishing attacks have been launched against police leaders during the past weeks in Fallujah, 69 km west of Baghdad, after reports of the U.S. and Iraqi government's plans to raid active and sleeping militant cells in the city
29 July, 2008
Iraq: Poised To Explode
By Robert DreyfussDespite the Optimism of the Neocons, which has pushed mainstream media coverage to be increasingly flowery about Iraq’s political progress, in fact the country is poised to explode. Even before the November election. And for McCain and Obama, the problem is that Iran has many of the cards in its hands. Depending on its choosing, between now and November Iran can help stabilize the war in Iraq — mostly by urging the Iraqi Shiites to behave themselves — or it can make things a lot more violent
25 July, 2008
Iraq: Most NGOs Losing Face
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailWelcomed at first after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, most NGOs have run into scepticism and mistrust. Few remain to help
21 July, 2008
Fallujah Braces For Another Assault
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailU.S. and Iraqi forces are preparing another siege of Fallujah under the pretext of combating "terror", residents and officials say
18 July, 2008
Unrest Surfaces In Fallujah Again
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailSecurity has collapsed again in Fallujah, despite U.S. military claims. Local militias supported by U.S. forces claim to have "cleansed" the city, 70 km to the west of Baghdad, of all insurgency. But the sudden resignation of the city's chief of police, Colonel Fayssal al-Zoba'i, has appeared as one recent sign of growing unrest
10 July, 2008
It's The Oil, Stupid!
By Noam ChomskyNegotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and other smaller oil companies — to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalisation during the years when the oil producers took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than 40 other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia
09 July, 2008
The Permanent Occupation
By Ghali HassanThe U.S government is in the process of imposing a “security agreement” on Iraq to allow U.S. occupying forces to remain in the country indefinitely. The “agreement” is a euphemism for a permanent colonial occupation of Iraq in flagrant violation of the Iraqi people’s demand and right to freedom and national independence
Legitimizing Permanent Occupation Of Iraq
By Stephen LendmanOn July 8, al-Maliki's National Security Advisor, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said Iraq is waiting "impatiently for the day when the last foreign soldier leaves" the country and wants firm dates for withdrawal. Getting them is another matter and statements mean little without actions. From the G-8 summit, George Bush's response means plenty, and it shows what Iraqis are up against: "It is important to understand that these are not talks on a hard date for a withdrawal."
24 June, 2008
Iraq Social And Refugee Crisis Is Worsening
By Sandy EnglishAccording to a report issued last week by the human rights organization Amnesty International, the plight of nearly 5 million Iraqis displaced from their homes since the American invasion of 2003 is worsening in nearly every respect
Iraq: Whoever Wins, They Lose
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailIraqis seem divided on who they would like to see as the next U.S. president, but few believe that either will end the occupation
20 June, 2008
Big Oil Cashes In On Iraq Slaughter
By Bill Van AukenFour major US, British and French oil companies are getting their hands on the petroleum reserves of Iraq for the first time in 36 years, based on no-bid contracts, the New York Times reported Thursday. These deals reached with the US-backed regime in Baghdad have placed the five-year-old US war of aggression in the clearest possible perspective
Snapshots Of Life In Baghdad
By Robert FiskThe dangerous face of ordinary life has been captured by Iraqis on their mobile phones – reaching the places Western photographers can no longer go
18 June, 2008
Legalizing Occupation:
Bush’s Last Manoeuvre In Iraq
By Ramzy BaroudTime is running out for Bush. If no treaty is reached by the end of the year, his administration could find itself pleading to the Security Council for another extension of the mandate. This would be an embarrassing and dangerous scenario for US diplomacy because it would allow Russia and China to re-emerge as important players wielding fearsome veto powers
Home To Too Many Widows
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailJust about everyone in Iraq is a loser as a result of the occupation, but none more than women. One of the more obvious signs of that is the very large number of widows.The Asharq al-Awsat Arab media channel estimated in late 2007 there were 2.3 million widows in Iraq
15 June, 2008
The Love Stories Are Gone
By Ali al-FadhilyAs statistics go, at least 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the occupation, now in its fifth year. Every one of them has left behind once loved ones to mourn the loss and to think of what might have been
12 June, 2008
'Special Weapons' Have A Fallout On Babies
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailBabies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say. The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004. After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah
05 June, 2008
Secret Plan To Keep Iraq Under US Control
By Patrick CockburnA secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November
Five Years on, Saddam's Successor Resurfaces
By Nicola NasserFor the first time since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in April 2003, the deputy of Saddam Hussein, the late President of Iraq, Izzat Ibrahim Addouri has resurfaced, despite a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, in a lengthy interview with Abdel-Azim Manaf, the editor-in-chief of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Mawqif Al-Arabi, not a mainstream, on May 26 to lay out the strategy and tactics of the Iraqi resistance led by the former ruling party, Al-Baath. Addouri's resurface and the resistance strategy he has laid out represent a direct challenge to the U.S. occupying power
02 June, 2008
Iraq: Death Toll'Above Highest Estimates'
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailThe real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say
30 May, 2008
U.S. Soldiers Launch Campaign To Convert
Iraqis To Christianity
By Jason LeopoldSome U.S. military personnel appears to have launched an initiative to covert thousands of Iraqi citizens to Christianity by distributing Bibles and other fundamentalist Christian literature translated into Arabic to Iraqi Muslims
29 May, 2008
Iraq’s Occupation: A Form Of Terrorism
By Ghali HassanThe responsibility remains for the U.S. and its allies to pay reparations for the damage and the unimaginable suffering they have caused to the Iraqi people. Moreover, it is not too late for George Bush, his gang and his accomplices to be held accountable for a war of aggression, terrorism and crimes against humanity
23 May, 2008
A “Holey” Instrument Of Peace In Iraq
By Robert WeitzelOn October 23, 2006 a U.S. soldier or marine peered through the telescopic sight of his M24 sniper rifle and trained it on the face of Nora, a five-year-old Iraqi girl. Her pretty face was close enough to kiss. Instead, he squeezed the trigger and sent a 7.62 round slamming into her skull. The medical report read, “Nora sustained an explosive bullet injury to her head that smashed the skull bones and ruptured her cerebral membrane.” Nora survived the sniper’s bullet
15 May, 2008
Food Crisis Hits Fallujah
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailSharp increases in food prices have generated a new wave of anti-occupation and anti-U.S. sentiment in Fallujah
06 May, 2008
Hospital Struck As US Military Tightens
Siege Of Baghdad’s Sadr City
By Peter SymondsUS missile strikes on a small building adjacent to a major hospital in Baghdad’s Sadr City on Saturday left more than 20 people injured, destroyed ambulances and shook the entire neighbourhood. The incident provides a glimpse of the hellish conditions created for residents of the huge working class slum through the month-long siege by American and Iraqi government forces
03 May, 2008
Iraq: Corruption Eats Into Food Rations
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailAmidst unemployment and impoverishment, Iraqis now face a cutting down of their monthly food ration – much of it already eaten away by official corruption
Is Sadr City Becoming The Next Gaza?
By Rannie AmiriThe ripples of the March 25th Basra offensive-turned-fiasco initiated by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have been transformed into waves of bloodletting, crashing rhythmically northward onto Sadr City. According to one governmental official, more than 900 people were killed and 2600 wounded in the teeming slum of three million in April
02 May, 2008
Iraq After Basra
By Ashley SmithThe assault on Basra has ended the false calm of the surge and sparked both increasing resistance to the occupation as well as ethnic and sectarian conflict between and among Iraq’s three great communities
30 April, 2008
US Escalates Siege In Baghdad’s Sadr City
By Kate RandallUS forces continued their siege against Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood on Tuesday, leaving dozens dead. The US military said a four-hour firefight broke out around 9:30 a.m. between US forces and militiamen as a US soldier injured by small-arms fire was being evacuated
28 April, 2008
Poverty Gets The Survivors
By Maki al-Nazzal & Dahr JamailMore than a million Iraqis were lucky enough to flee into Syria. But in this relatively safe haven, there is no getting away from poverty
18 April, 2008
Iraq: Chaos Hardening Sectarian Fiefdoms
By Ali GharibThere are an estimated 2.7 million Iraqis who have been displaced within their own country. No house; no food; no security. Who do they turn to for help? The international community's humanitarian organisations? The occupying United States government? The central Iraqi government based in Baghdad? According to a report released Tuesday by Refugees International (RI), none of these has been able to provide sufficient assistance to the most vulnerable Iraqis
15 April, 2008
Basra Battles: Barely Half The Story
By Ramzy BaroudWhen it comes to Iraq, reporters appear intent on omitting or fabricating news. The latest battles in Basra, Iraq's second largest city and a vital oil seaport, furnished ample instances of misleading and manipulative practice in corporate journalism today. One commonly used tactic is to describe events using self-styled or "official" terminology, which deliberately confuses the reader by giving no real indication or analysis of what is actually happening
From One Dictator To The Next
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailMany Iraqis have come to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is just as much a dictator as Saddam Hussein was
Five Years On, Fallujah In Tatters
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailFallujah remains a crippled city more than two years after the November 2004 U.S.-led assault. Unemployment, and lack of medical care and safe drinking water in the city 60 km west of Baghdad remain a continuous problem. Freedom of movement is still curtailed
10 April, 2008
Congressional Hearings Set Stage For
Wider War—Inside And Outside Of Iraq
By Bill Van AukenAs the mass media’s attention remained focused Wednesday on the rerun of testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker—this time before two House committees—a sparsely attended hearing on the Senate side heard a key architect of the year-old “surge” in Iraq tell Democrats that there ultimately isn’t much difference between their position and that of the administration
07 April, 2008
Romancing The War
By Mustapha MarrouchiIraq, the seat of the glorious Abbassid period , which gave us the Golden Age of Islam, is a contaminated place, full of dust, blood, and stench
02 April, 2008
Iraq: 'Handed Over' To A Government Called Sadr
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailDespite the huge media campaign led by U.S. officials and a complicit corporate-controlled media to convince the world of U.S. success in Iraq, emerging facts on the ground show massive failure. The date March 25 of this year will be remembered as the day of truth through five years of occupation
01 April, 2008
US-Backed Assault On Basra Ends In
Humiliation For Maliki Government
By Bill Van AukenIn both major cities, as well as elsewhere in Iraq’s south, residents buried their dead, cleared away rubble and stocked up on food and water in anticipation of renewed fighting. Official tallies put the number killed since the US-backed government of Nouri al-Maliki launched its abortive military offensive last Tuesday at close to 500, though the real death toll may well be considerably higher. At least 1,200 people are known to have been wounded
31 March, 2008
Repeated US Air Strikes In Basra And Baghdad
By Peter SymondsHundreds of people have died in six days of fierce fighting as the US puppet regime in Baghdad has sought to stamp its control over the port city of Basra, centre of Iraq’s southern oil fields. As operations by some 30,000 Iraqi security personnel stalled, US and British air strikes repeatedly hit densely populated areas of Basra, as well as other strongholds of supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad and southern towns and cities
29 March, 2008
Where Are The Iraqis In The Iraq War?
By Ramzy BaroudFive years after the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, mainstream media is once more making the topic an object of intense scrutiny. The costs and implications of the war are endlessly covered from all possible angles, with one notable exception -- the cost to the Iraqi people themselves
28 March, 2008
Stalled Assault On Basra Exposes
The Iraqi Government's Shaky Authority
By Patrick CockburnThe Iraqi army's offensive against the Shia militia of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Basra is failing to make significant headway despite a pledge by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to fight "to the end"
Iraqi Government Offensive In Basra
Threatens To Trigger Shiite Uprising
By Peter SymondsFighting between Iraqi security forces, backed by the US military, and militia loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr continued unabated yesterday following a government offensive launched in the southern port city of Basra on Tuesday. Up to 200 people have been killed, many of them civilians, in clashes over the past three days in Basra, as well as the southern towns of Kut, Diwaniya, Hilla and Amara, and the sprawling slums of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad
27 March, 2008
Iraq Implodes As Shia Fights Shia
By Patrick CockburnA new civil war is threatening to explode in Iraq as American-backed Iraqi government forces fight Shia militiamen for control of Basra and parts of Baghdad
Iraq: Fever Named After Blackwater
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailIraqi doctors in al-Anbar province warn of a new disease they call "Blackwater" that threatens the lives of thousands. The disease is named after Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. mercenary company operating in Iraq
Classified Memo Reveals Iraqi Prisoners
As "Starving"
By Jason LeopoldA classified memo written by a top military official stationed in Western Iraq reveals that a prison in downtown Fallujah is so overcrowded and dirty that it does not even meet basic “minimal levels of hygiene for human beings.”
Five Years On - Invasion And occupation
By Peter HaddenAs the fifth anniversary of the fateful decision to launch the invasion of Iraq passes, the claims by the US administration that the 2007 troop surge has succeeded in quelling the insurgency and checking the slide to sectarian break up - claims that were being made loudly at the start of this year - are becoming fainter by the day
26 March, 2008
Iraqi Regime Launches Assault On Basra
By David WalshFighting between Iraqi government forces and militias loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr erupted Tuesday in the southern port city of Basra, as well as other towns and certain districts of Baghdad. Dozens were killed in the conflicts, according to the media and hospital officials
25 March, 2008
Five Years Of War Crimes
By Ghali HassanFive years of illegal and murderous Occupation, the Iraqi people continue to endure an unimaginable suffering under the highest form of tyrannical dictatorships. Credible surveys estimated at least 1.3 million innocent Iraqis — the majority of them women and children — have been brutally murdered in cold blood, making the Iraq’s Genocide the biggest single mass murder of modern time. Almost every Iraqi family has lost at least one close relative. The mayhem is continuing in an endless genocide waged by the world's largest and most offensive military machine, almost entirely against defenceless population
White House Signals Continued Iraq Escalation
As US Death Toll Tops 4,000
By Bill Van AukenBush held a two-hour video conference with the chief commander of the US forces occupying Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and the American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, the day after a roadside bomb killed four US troops in southern Baghdad, bringing the total American death toll in the five-year war to 4,000
Bush Blisters The Truth On Iraq
By Ralph NaderOn the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Bush's illegal war of aggression in Iraq, the Fabricator-in-Chief made a speech at the Pentagon, whose muzzled army chiefs had opposed his costly, ruinous adventure from the start for strategic, tactical and logistical reasons
Winter Soldiers Sound Off
By Dahr JamailJason Moon suffers from persistent insomnia as he wrestles with memories of his time in Iraq. “While on our initial convoy into Iraq in early June 2003, we were given a direct order that if any children or civilians got in front of the vehicles in our convoy, we were not to stop, we were not to slow down, we were to keep driving,” says the former National Guard and Army Reserve member
21 March, 2008
The Making Of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”
By Jason LeopoldThe Iraq war, which was predicated on the existence of weapons of mass destruction, has resulted in the deaths of nearly 4,000 US troops and has cost taxpayers roughly half-a-trillion dollars. As the war now enters its sixth year it's worth revisiting how prewar Iraq intelligence was cooked in the months leading up toward the preemptive strike and how the handful of dissenters who objected to Iraq policy were sidelined
19 March, 2008
US-UK-Australian Iraqi Holocaust And Iraqi Genocide
By Dr Gideon PolyaOn the 5th anniversary of the illegal, war criminal, Australian, UK and US invasion of Iraq we see an ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide - post-invasion non-violent and violent excess deaths 1.7-2.2 million, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.6 million, and 4.5 million refugees out of a current population of about 28 million i.e. about one quarter of Iraqis dead or homeless
The Only Lesson We Ever Learn
Is That We Never Learn
By Robert FiskAnd I will hazard a terrible guess: that we have lost Afghanistan as surely as we have lost Iraq and as surely as we are going to "lose" Pakistan. It is our presence, our power, our arrogance, our refusal to learn from history and our terror – yes, our terror – of Islam that is leading us into the abyss. And until we learn to leave these Muslim peoples alone, our catastrophe in the Middle East will only become graver. There is no connection between Islam and "terror". But there is a connection between our occupation of Muslim lands and "terror". It's not too complicated an equation. And we don't need a public inquiry to get it right
This Is The War That Started With Lies,
And Continues With Lie After Lie After Lie
By Patrick CockburnIt has been a war of lies from the start. All governments lie in wartime but American and British propaganda in Iraq over the past five years has been more untruthful than in any conflict since the First World War
Iraq: A Humanitarian Crisis Of
Catastrophic Dimensions
By Kate RandallFive years of the US-led war and occupation of Iraq have created a humanitarian crisis affecting all aspects of Iraqi society. This catastrophe is illustrated by the millions of Iraqis either killed or displaced, the daily toll of death and violence, the fracturing of families and communities, and the crumbling of basic infrastructure and social services
How To Get Out Of Iraq
By Sharat G. LinWhy U.S. withdrawal will actually help stabilize the country
18 March, 2008
Iraq: Five Years, And Counting
By Dahr JamailDevastation on the ground and largely held Iraqi opinion contradicts claims by U.S. officials that the situation in Iraq has improved towards the fifth anniversary of the invasion March 20
13 March, 2008
Riding To War On A Poison Cloud
By Sharat G. LinHow the Forgotten City of Halabja became the Launch Pad for War on Iraq. When the Bush administration went to war with Iraq in March 2003, the centerpiece of its justification for war was weapons of mass destruction. But its precise timing was driven, in large part, by the anniversary of the poison gas attack on the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja. On the fifth and twentieth anniversaries of these two tragic events, a study of the connection between them reveals a deliberate pattern of twisting and fabricating intelligence to meet policy objectives
11 March, 2008
Childhood Is Dying In Iraq
By Dahr Jamail & Ahmed AliIraq's children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population. The United Nations estimated that half a million Iraqi children died during more than 12 years of economic sanctions that preceded the U.S. invasion of March 2003, primarily as a result of malnutrition and disease. But childhood malnutrition in Iraq has increased 9 percent since then, according to an Oxfam International report released last July
Iraqi Women Quietly Endure Horrors Of War
By Cyril MychalejkoMarch 8 marks the 99th celebration of International Women's Day, a day to commemorate the political, social, and economic struggles and achievements of women globally. This year we should use the holiday to observe and reflect on the suffering of Iraqi women, who have become invisible "collateral damage" in our country's war in this now defenseless Middle Eastern nation. A good place to start would be by picking up and reading Haifa Zangana's book, "City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance."
07 March, 2008
Women's Day-Iraq: Surviving Somehow
Behind A Concrete Purdah
By Dahr JamailIraq, where women once had more rights and freedom than most others in the Arab world, has turned deadly for women who dream of education and a professional career
27 February, 2008
US Military Announces 10,000 More
Post-“Surge” Troops In Iraq
By Naomi SpencerOn Monday, the US military announced that the number of troops in Iraq following the “surge” begun last year will be some 10,000 more than pre-surge levels. What was originally presented as a temporary increase of US occupation forces will result in the indefinite presence of 140,000 US soldiers in Iraq
Baquba Losing Life – And Hope
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailLife has been bad enough in Diyala province north of Baghdad after prolonged violence, unemployment and loss of all forms of normal living. What could be worse now is the loss of hope that anything will ever be better
25 February, 2008
The Enduring Trap In Iraq
By Adil ShamooA showdown is brewing between Republicans and Democrats over the Iraq War once again. The Bush administration is stirring the pot once again by negotiating an agreement with the "sovereign" Iraqi government to place U.S. military troops and bases permanently on Iraqi soil despite strong objections from many Democrats
The Door To Iraq's Oil Opens
By M K BhadrakumarAs can be expected, Washington is keen to exploit the vastly improved security situation in Iraq. The Bush administration is leaning on Shahristani not to wait for the fractious Iraqi Parliament to approve the Iraqi oil law that would have provided a legal framework for foreign investment in the oil industry. As the first step, the executives of some of the world's oil majors have been meeting with Iraqi Oil Ministry officials since January 24 in Amman, Jordan, for discussing the terms of technical support contracts, which are in the nature of shorter-term deals
21 February, 2008
Iraq: Unemployment Too Becomes An Epidemic
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailFor a few, salaries have soared. For the rest, unemployment has. Many Iraqi workers enjoyed huge salary increases following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. But unemployment rose more sharply under policies introduced by the Coalition Provisional Authority
Risk Of Cholera Multiplied By
Sewage Collapse In Baghdad
By Oscar GrenfellFive years after the illegal invasion of Iraq, the absence of adequate sewerage treatment, clean water and reliable power supplies are glaring exposures of the lie that the US occupation has any concern for the well-being or rights of the population. Every death and illness that is caused by the infrastructure crisis is the responsibility of the Bush administration
20 February, 2008
Making Iraq Disappear
By Tom EngelhardtHow Never to Withdraw from Iraq
19 February, 2008
X-Rated Iraq: A Tortured Story
By Captain Eric H. MayAn anonymous man wearing a US Special Forces T-shirt is a war criminal, if his three-minute YouTube interview is to be believed. In it, he claims to have taken part in routine torture of Iraqis — Hajji’s in soldier slang — in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, and to have been part of a scheme with other guards to prostitute a 15-year-old Iraqi girl who later hung herself
The Lights Have Gone Out, Who Cares
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailLack of electricity in Baquba has shattered businesses, and the lives of families. Months of power failures has darkened morale everywhere
A New Force Called Sahwa Shows Its Muscle
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailThe Awakening Councils in Diyala province are stepping up their protests against the government in Baghdad. The Awakening Councils, or the Sahwa as they are called, are a mostly Sunni Muslim force set up by the U.S. to draw in resistance fighters into their ranks, and then to help U.S. forces fight other anti-U.S. groups
12 February, 2008
A Tidal Wave Of Misery Is Engulfing Iraq
By Michael SchwartzA tidal wave of misery is engulfing Iraq—and it isn't the usual violence that Americans are accustomed to hearing about and tuning out. To be sure, it's rooted in that violence, but this tsunami of misery is social and economic in nature. It dislodges people from their jobs, sweeps them from their homes, tears them from their material possessions, and carries them off from families and communities. It leaves them stranded in hostile towns or foreign countries, with no anchor to resist the moment when the next wave of displacement sweeps over them
Iraq: The Road To Learning Can Be Dangerous
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailThe Road To University professors now enjoy increased pay, but in the face of threats and isolation, there is little they are able to do in the world of academics
More Bombing Creates New Enemies
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailMany Iraqis view the attack Jan. 10 by bombers and F-16 jets on a cluster of villages in the Latifiya district south of Baghdad as overkill
28 January, 2008
Return To Fallujah
By Patrick CockburnFallujah is more difficult to enter than any city in the world. On the road from Baghdad I counted 27 checkpoints, all manned by well-armed soldiers and police. "The siege is total," says Dr Kamal in Fallujah Hospital as he grimly lists his needs, which include everything from drugs and oxygen to electricity and clean water
Iraqis On "Success" And "Progress"
In Their Country
By Dahr JamailAmericans may argue among themselves about just how much “success” or “progress” there really is in post-surge Iraq, but it is almost invariably an argument in which Iraqis are but stick figures — or dead bodies. Of late, I have been asking Iraqis I know by email what they make of the American version (or versions) of the unseemly reality that is their country, that they live and suffer with. What does it mean to become a “secondary issue” for your occupier?
25 January, 2008
Iraq: 'US The Biggest Producer Of Terror'
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailBroken promises have brought a dramatic increase in anti-U.S. sentiment across the capital city of Iraq's Diyala province. Many people in Baquba, capital of Diyala 40 km northeast of Baghdad, had supported U.S. forces when they ousted former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But failed reconstruction projects and muddled policies mean the U.S. has lost that support
24 January, 2008
Iraq: Under Curfew, This Is No Life
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailContinuing curfew has brought normal life to a standstill in Baquba, capital of the restive Diyala province north of Baghdad
A Lesson In How To Create Iraqi Orphans
By Robert FiskIt's not difficult to create orphans in Iraq. If you're an insurgent, you can blow yourself up in a crowded market. If you're an American air force pilot, you can bomb the wrong house in the wrong village. Or if you're a Western mercenary, you can fire 40 bullets into the widowed mother of 14-year-old Alice Awanis and her sisters Karoon and Nora, the first just 20, the second a year older. But when the three girls landed at Amman airport from Baghdad last week they believed that they were free of the horrors of Baghdad and might travel to Northern Ireland to escape the terrible memory of their mother's violent death
23 January, 2008
The Uncounted Dead Of Iraq
By Nicole ColsonThe mainstream media are trumpeting a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that estimates the number of Iraqis who died from violence in the three years following the U.S. invasion as “only” 151,000. This figure is less than a quarter of a previous Johns Hopkins University estimate of approximately 600,000 dead as the result of violence since the U.S. invasion of 2003
22 January, 2008
Iraq: Police And Army Getting Sidelined
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr JamailNew military operations in Diyala province north of Baghdad have exacerbated a growing conflict between U.S.-backed Sunni fighters on the one hand and Iraqi army and police forces on the other
15 January, 2008
Iraq: Awoken To A New Danger
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailThe newly formed 'Awakening' forces set up by the U.S. military are bringing new conflict among people
Stress: In Iraq And USA
By Layla AnwarStress is when you have no job because some f... backward retard came and occupied your country, pillaged it and stripped you of your livelihood. That is stress.Stress is when you run from hospital ward to hospital ward, from prison to prison, from militia to militia looking for your loved one only to recognize them from their teeth fillings in some morgue...That is stress alright
14 January, 2008
Layla Anwar – An Arab Woman Blues:
Indicting The Reader
By Garda GhistaLayla Anwar is the pseudonym for an Iraqi blogger, in her early to mid-forties, who appears to be writing directly from Baghdad, right in the line of fire, so to speak. She comes from a secular, upper-middle class, Sunni background and remains loyal to Saddam Hussein. Unlike the blogger Baghdad Burning, Layla does not write for the American left. Rather, she writes to all Americans, including the American left, and condemns us all along with the Bush-Cheney regime. She indicts every single American for being a part of the destruction and devastation of her motherland. She writes to the enemy
12 January, 2008
US Carries Out Massive Bombing
On Outskirts Of Baghdad
By James CoganThe US military unleashed a huge bombardment on the Arab Jubour district just 15 kilometres south-east of Baghdad on Thursday. In the space of 10 minutes, B-1 Stealth bombers and F-16 fighter-bombers pounded 47 targets with 47,500 pounds of high explosive bombs. A military spokesman, Major Alayne Conway, boasted that the operation “was one of the largest air strikes since the onset of the war”. The blasts were seen, heard and felt in the suburbs of Iraq’s capital
Iraq: Less Violent But Not Less Hellish
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailU.S. and Iraqi officials claim that security is improving across al-Anbar province and much of Iraq. Security during the last half of 2007 was indeed better than in the period between February 2006 and mid-2007. But this has brought little solace to many Iraqis, because violence is still worse than in 2005 and early 2006
07 January, 2008
Iraq Death Rate Belies US Claims Of Success
By Kim SenguptaThe death rate in Iraq in the past 12 months has been the second highest in any year since the invasion, according to figures that appear to contradict American claims that the troop "surge" has dramatically reduced the level of violence across the country
Iraq: Killer Of U.S. Soldiers Becomes A Hero
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr JamailThe recent killing of two U.S. soldiers by their Iraqi colleague has raised disturbing questions about U.S. military relations with the Iraqis they work with
06 January, 2008
Cutbacks To Iraqi Food Rations
Threaten Malnutrition And Starvation
By James CoganUnder conditions of widespread malnutrition, run-away inflation and mass unemployment, the Iraqi Trade Ministry is preparing to slash the provision of subsidised food and basic hygiene necessities under the Public Distribution System
The Iraq Charade
By Ramzy BaroudIn recent months, we have been inundated by media reports bringing good news from Iraq, with countless testimonials to the great improvement in security enjoyed by the country in general and the Baghdad area in particular. This progress is attributed solely to the judicious ‘surge’ of US military presence, and the astute tactics enacted by occupation forces in a place that once personified despair and violence
05 January, 2008
The Myth Of Sectarianism
By Dahr JamailIf the U.S. leaves Iraq, the violent sectarianism between the Sunni and Shia will worsen. This is what Republicans and Democrats alike will have us believe. This key piece of rhetoric is used to justify the continuance of the occupation of Iraq
Iraqis Resort To Selling Children
By Afif SarhanLocal officials and aid workers have expressed concern over the alarming rate at which children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's current unstable environment
02 January, 2008
The State Of Iraq As It Enters 2008
By James CoganMedia reports about New Year parties in parts of Baghdad cannot disguise the fact that Iraqis have little to look forward to in 2008, and even less to celebrate about 2007. Last year was yet another of death, destruction and suffering