Middle East

Blair to Draw Down British Troops Tony Blair is taking 1600 troops out of Basra in the next few months and will aim to be down to only 3,000 or so (from 7,100 now) by the end of the year. Denmark is also going home. This is a rout, there should be no mistake. The […]

Security Plan Mocked by Massive Explosions Al-Hashimi Seeks “Terrorist” Status for Sadr Movement Reuters reports that 2 US soldiers were killed by guerrillas on Saturday. In addition to the massive bombings at a Shiite market in East Baghdad that killed 70 and wounded 150 (- al-Hayat) on Sunday, another bomb, detonated in a restaurant in […]

53% of Americans Want US Out of Iraq Car bombs, 20 Bodies in Baghdad Despite Crackdown The percentage of Americans in a Pew Research Center poll who want US troops out of Iraq surged by 5 percent in the past month to 53 percent. Sunni Arab guerrillas killed a US GI in al-Anbar Province on […]

5 US Troops Killed in Sunni Arab Areas US Raids Office of SCIRI Leader Saghir The US military is reporting the deaths of 6 US troops in Iraq. Four were killed by a roadside bomb in Sunni-majority Diyala Province where the US has been fighting Sunni Arab guerrillas. Another was killed “north of Baghdad” (i.e. […]

On the Mystery of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Disappearance US government sources are saying that nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fled to neighboring Iran three weeks ago. Sadrist aides denied the report. This on a day when two major bombings left 66 persons wounded or dead in the capital, and 20 bodies were found in the streets […]

NYT Falls for Bogus Iran Weapons Charges Completely Implausible Numbers are Thrown Around Repeat of Judy Miller Scandal This NYT article depends on unnamed USG sources who alleged that 25 percent of US military deaths and woundings in Iraq in October-December of 2006 were from explosively formed penetrator bombs fashioned in Iran and given to […]

Putin Denounces Unilateral US Iraq War Jaafari Calls for US Troops to Depart The US military on Saturday announced 3 GIs killed and 4 wounded in al-Anbar province. Reuters reports political violence in Iraq for Saturday, including a car bombing in Karrada that killed 5 Iraqis and wounded 10. There also other killings, in east […]

Feith in the Situation Room: Three Lies Former No. 3 at the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, has been found guilty by the Inspector General of “inappropriate” behavior in setting up a rogue unit inside the Pentagon to cherry pick intelligence so as to get up a war. Of course, the […]

Crash Kills 7 GIs Arab Demonstration in Kirkuk A helicopter crash killed 7 US GIs on Wednesday. AP interviewed an Iraqi farmer in the area who said he heard a missile being fired before the crash, and a radical Muslim group took responsibility. Only an investigation will settle if it was a shoot-down, but the […]