Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Meanwhile in Iraq

At least 29 killed in occupied Iraq: The bodies of eight people were found, bound and gagged, in Baquba, police said. All the victims were shot in the head.

Wedding car bomb kills 15 in Baghdad: An interior ministry official said the blast targeted a wedding convoy at dusk in Ur, a mainly Shia residential district on the outskirts of Sadr city, which one day earlier was also the scene of a deadly bombing.

Two U.S.occupation soldiers killed in Baghdad : Two American soldiers were killed in Baghdad in two attacks on Monday, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

Gunmen kidnap more than 40 in north of Baghdad : Unknown gunmen abducted Tuesday more than 40 people, including tribal leaders and prominent persons from two Shiite towns in north of Baghdad, provincial police said.

Pentagon: US force in Iraq swells to 150,000: Tthe Pentagon said Monday the US force in Iraq has grown to 150,000 troops, the biggest it has been since January.

More Iraqi Security Forces Needed?: President Bush's National Security Adviser showed up unannounced in Baghdad Monday to meet with Iraq's Prime Minister al-Maliki — who, according to U.S. intelligence, is telling his inner circle the situation is "nearly out of control,"

U.S. obeys order to abandon checkpoints: U.S. troops on Tuesday abandoned checkpoints around the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on orders from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the latest in a series of moves by the Iraqi leader to assert his authority with the U.S. administration.

In Baghdad, a Force Under the Militias' Sway: Infiltration of Iraqi Police Could Delay Handover of Control for Years, U.S. Trainers Suggest

Blair risks humiliating defeat as opponents demand Iraq inquiry : Tony Blair faces the risk of a humiliating Commons defeat today over his refusal to allow a wide-ranging inquiry into the crisis in Iraq. The Tories, Liberal Democrats and as many as 40 Labour rebels are threatening to support a nationalist demand for a parliamentary examination of the war and its aftermath.

George Galloway demands Blair held to account for Iraq: 'It's a very modest motion before the house - a call for a committee of inquiry comprising seven members of the privy council. It therefore speaks volumes that the government is opposing this attempt at the mildest of scrutiny into its conduct up to and including the outbreak of the disastrous war on Iraq.

Fears over huge growth in Iraq's unregulated private armies: There are three British private security guards to every British soldier in Iraq, the charity War on Want said yesterday

Pentagon ramping up propaganda offensive: In a memo obtained by the Associated Press, Dorrance Smith, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said new teams of people will "develop messages" for the 24-hour news cycle and "correct the record."

Iraq: At least 80 killed as bloody U.S. occupation continues: bomb blast ripped through a crowd of labourers in a square in Baghdad's Shi'ite Sadr City district, killing 28 people and wounding 60, Interior Ministry sources said.

Rights group says gov't protecting death squad members: "Evidence suggests that Iraqi security forces are involved in these horrific crimes, and thus far the government has not held them accountable," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of HRW's Middle East division. "The Iraqi government must stop giving protection to security forces responsible for abduction, torture and murder."

U.S. failed to track weapons : The American military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded.

Security firms 'abusing Iraqis' : Private security firms operating in Iraq are committing human rights abuses, a charity has claimed.

Iraqi leader critical of U.S. envoy : Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told President Bush that America's ambassador in Baghdad acts like a viceroy instead of a diplomat.

No fast U.S. shift on Iraq if Democrats win -Dean: Countering Republican campaign charges that Democrats would "cut and run" from Iraq, chairman Howard Dean said the party did not believe there should be a sudden pullout of all U.S. troops.

In case you missed it: Scott Ritter: Weapons of Mass Delusion : Ritter gives his analysis of the real reasons for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The real problem is that it is illegal for one country to invade another country : As the Nuremberg Tribunal concluded after World War II: "War is essentially an evil thing ... To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

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