Pakistan has had to impose trading limits to stop the slide in its stock market coming off the end of the coalition government. Investors have been worried about the withdrawal of the Muslim League (N) from the parliamentary coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party. Meanwhile, Switzerland has dropped its money-laundering investigation of Asaf Ali Zardari, […]
45 Dead, 79 Wounded in Wave of Violence; Bombing in Jalawla’ Raises Tensions with Baghdad
Why Iraq still matters to the presidential campaign,according to Mark Brunswick of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Violence erupted throughout central, eastern and northern Iraq on Tuesday, leaving at least 45 dead and some 79 wounded. The major single attack was a suicide bombing that struck at a police recruiting center in the mostly Kurdish town […]
Al-Maliki Insists US Troops be Out by 2011; Iraqi Christian Refugees at Risk
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq insisted again Monday that all foreign troops must be out of Iraq by 2011 and that US troops in Iraq must come under the authority of Iraqi courts. These demands appear to have emanated in the first instance from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf and from Sayyid Muqtada […]
International Reaction to Biden
Iraqi politicians greeted the the selection of Joe Biden as the Democratic vice presidential candidate with dismay because they oppose his soft partition plan for Iraq, an affront to Iraqi conceptions of national unity. In contrast, the Sulaymaniya newspaper Kirkuk ran an article by Zana Galali, that, according to BBC Monitoring, “Says that the US […]
54 Killed in Bombings, attacks; Water Crisis; Fixing the Intelligence Around the Policy
A suicide bomber attacked a celebration in Abu Ghraib late Sunday, killing at least 30 and wounding 42. The gathering was in honor of a former prisoner in a US prison who had just been released and was attended by police and by members of the local Awakening Council that has fought radical Muslim vigilantes […]
FBI to Open Cases via Profiling; MI5: Don’t Bother
Bush is trying to permanently widen FBI prerogatives in opening investigations of US citizens before leaving office. His new guidelines would allow an investigation to begin on the basis of data-mining and profiling, with no evidence of suspected wrong-doing. See my Salon.com article on this issue. This, at a time when the British MI-5 is […]
OSC: Collective Punishment in Baghdad
The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Arabic online press complaining about Iraqi government collective punishment of Baghdad city quarters that witness poor security. US, Iraqi Forces Accused of Dividing Baghdad Neighborhoods on ‘Sectarian’ BasisReport by Kalshan al-Bayyati “Residents of Baghdad: ‘The Government Imposes Collective Punishment on us”Al-Arab OnlineWednesday, August 20, 2008 […]
Najaf Demonstrations against Rice: "Rogue" Operation in Baquba; Sadr in Iran for 5 Years
Secretary of State Condi Rice’s visit to Baghdad for consultations on the US-Iraqi security agreement provoked a demonstration in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, with Sadrist crowds carrying placards warning against US intentions. The Sadrists said that they rejected any security agreement that lacked a specific timetable for US troop withdrawal, and would take […]
Biden as VP Candidate
A warm congratulations to Senator Joe Biden on his VP candidate position on the Democratic ticket! Sen. Biden called me to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq in April 2004, when there was heavy fighting between the Mahdi Army and the US military. He did so on the basis of a journal […]
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