A car bomber attacked a convoy he thought was conveying the Iraqi labor minister, Mahmoud al Radhi on Thursday, killing 13 persons and wounding 24, according to McClatchy. Al Radhi is a member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a fundamentalist Shiite party close to the ayatollahs in Tehran. […]
Dabbagh Rejects Bush Pressure Tactics on Iraq; Al-Haeri Declares Security Agreement Illicit; Irrelevancy of Al-Qaeda on McCain
Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh reacted sharply on Wednesday to comments of US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen last Tuesday that Iraqis did not have much time to pass the agreement and might not understand the full consequences of failure to do so. Dabbagh said, “It is not correct to […]
US Kills 9 Afghan Troops; Kabul Security Declines
The US military accidentally killed 9 Afghan soldiers in an air strike on Wednesday, one in a series of mistaken such aerial attacks in recent months, some of which have left behind substantial civilian casualties. Earlier in the Afghanistan war, US commanders had avoided the tactic of air strikes precisely for fear that they would […]
Iraq Moves Closer to Obama-Type Plan for early US Withdrawal; Cabinet rejects Security Agreement
The debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama about a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq may have just been overtaken by events. Without a bilateral agreement on the rules governing US military actions in Iraq, US soldiers and officers would become liable to prosecution for acts committed in the course of […]
When did McCain become a Neocon? Shiite MPs demand SOFA Renegotiation
Jonathan Landay carefully traces John McCain’s transformation from pragmatist to Neoconservative warmonger, which took place while Bush was still just a Texas politician. He rather amusingly quotes Max Boot claiming that McCain is not a warmonger. I mean, in 2003 Boot acknowledged that the US killed thousands of Filipino civilians in the early 20th century […]
Powell’s Finest Moment
What is remarkable to me about Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama on Meet the Press was its sincerity and the form of its reasoning. He addressed issues, not personalities. He engaged in analysis, not demonization. After the Rove years of Goebbels-like propaganda, guilt by association, and innuendo, Powell’s appearance brought fresh air into the […]
Joe McCain: N. Virginia "Communist"; John McCain: Obama Socialist
Is McCain a far Right extremist? When McCain calls Obama a “socialist,” is he Red-baiting? Republicans back in the 1950s through the 1980s routinely accused Democrats of being “Communists” or hinted around that they were fellow travelers or ‘soft on communism.’ Richard M. Nixon, the grand dragon of dirty tricks, described the Democratic standard bearer […]
Muqtada Calls on Parliamentarians: ‘Just say ‘No’
Muqtada al-Sadr called Saturday for Iraqi parliamentarians to reject the draft security agreement proposed by the Bush administration and PM Nuri al-Maliki. Tens of thousands of Iraqis rallied against the agreement. Reuters reports political violence in Iraq on Saturday: ‘ * SAMARRA – A mass grave containing 11 bodies was found in the northeast of […]
Maliki Implies Odierno Ouster; Thousands Protest Security Pact
Although Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has approved a draft agreement on US troops in Iraq, it faces severe opposition from many parliamentarians and may not actually be enacted into law. A major stumbling block is immunity for US troops from Iraqi law. Meanwhile, al-Maliki said Friday that Gen. Ray Odierno may have lost his position […]
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