U.S. SOLDIER KILLED IN IRAQ. TWO OTHERS SERIOUSLY WOUNDED

Reuters News continues to report on what is happening in Iraq while FOX NEWS and the rest of the mainstream media in the United States shun reporting on anything to do with war in Iraq.

There continues to be growing signs the "surge" is a smokescreen and violence in Iraq is inching upwards

The shame of it all is the United States has 160,000 young Americans in Iraq but as far as FOX NEWS and the rest of the mainstream press in the United States is concerned it doesn't matter.

There can ONLY be one reason for the lack of Iraq War coverage by FOX NEWS and the mainstream media.

It is because very few people at FOX NEWS or any of the other mainstream news outlets ever served one day in the military of the United States of America, nor do they have a family member serving in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

By Bill Corcoran, editor of the popular blog CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ which brings to readers what FOX NEWS and the rest of the mainstream press refuses to report on the war in Iraq. Former U.S. Army Combat Engineer.

ONE GI KILLED,TWO OTHERS WOUNDED IN IRAQ

Feb 11 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1210 GMT on Monday

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LSGZ-7BQJEG OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=irq.

DIYALA PROVINCE - One U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded on Sunday when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in Diyala province, east of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces arrested 25 Shi'ite militiamen during an operation near Sadr city, in northeast Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Two car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad within a few minutes of each other on Monday killing at least five people and wounding 13 others, Iraqi police said.

NEAR BAIJI - Police found four bodies with gunshot wounds near Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - Three gunmen were killed and one Iraqi soldier wounded in clashes in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a military spokesman in Nineveh province said.

MOSUL - A suicide car bomber blew himself up in eastern Mosul, wounding a woman and a child, police said.

BREAKING NEWS: TWO CAR BOMBS ROCK BAGHDAD

Hey FOX NEWS: Let's hear it again about how well the "surge" is working. C'mon FOX NEWS peddle the Bush White House BS.

Perhaps it is events like this why FOX NEWS doesn't have a reporter on the ground in Baghdad or anywhere in Iraq. It is way too dangerous and only getting worse each day.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ bringing readers what FOX NEWS doesn't report on the IRAQ WAR.

11 killed in Baghdad car bombings

(AFP)11 February 2008

http://tinyurl.com/2cagmt

BAGHDAD - Two car bombs rocked Baghdad on Monday, killing 11 people and wounding 30, as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was winding up a two-day visit to the violent Iraqi capital, officials said.

Witnesses said the bombs exploded in the southeastern neighbourhood of Jadriyah around noon (0900 GMT) as Gates was about to leave the country.

A security official said the two car bombs exploded almost simultaneouslyat the busy Al Huriyah square.

Gates was greeted on his arrival on Sunday by a powerful car bomb triggered by a suicide attacker that killed 25 people at a market in the village of Yathreb near Balad, north of Baghdad.

The defence secretary said on Monday the security situation in Baghdad remained ‘fragile’ and that he was in favour of a short pause in troop drawdowns from Iraq after about 30,000 soldiers have been sent home by July.

NEW STUDY SHOWS BUSH AND ARMY BURIED FAULTY PLANS FOR IRAQ WAR

Not that anyone needs further proof that there was a rush to get us into war with Iraq by the Bush administration and the Pentagon, but now the New York Times on Monday, Feburary 11 is reporting a study by the Rand Corporation was buried by the Bush White House and the Pentagon even though the report was not classified.

The Iraq war has been going on now longer than it took the United States to fight World War II.

For all the chest-thumping President Bush, General Petraeus and FOX NEWS have been doing about the success of the "surge," there are mounting signs violence in Iraq as on the upswing.

Two bombs went off Monday in Baghdad and there were a series of car bombing over the weekend that left scores of Iraqi citizens dead as well as the death of FIVE members of the United States military.

The mainstream press continues to focus entirely on the upcoming election in the United States and the Iraq War is no longer a topic in both the electronic and print media.

That is why my blog, CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ has become so popular not only in the United States but all across the world. The blog is devoted to telling the TRUTH about what is happening in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.



Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning

http://tinyurl.com/yvq3p5

By MICHAEL R. GORDON
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.

That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military.

After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.

But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.

A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war. That assessment parallels the verdicts of numerous former officials and independent analysts.

The study chided President Bush — and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned — as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. “Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” it said.

The Defense Department led by Donald H. Rumsfeld was given the lead in overseeing the postwar period in Iraq despite its “lack of capacity for civilian reconstruction planning and execution.”

The State Department led by Colin L. Powell produced a voluminous study on the future of Iraq that identified important issues but was of “uneven quality” and “did not constitute an actionable plan.”

Click on link above to read the full story.

OIL AND PERMANENT BASES IN IRAQ GOAL OF PRESIDENT BUSH

Contrary to how President George W. Bush has tried to justify the Iraq war in the past, he has now . . . admitted that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was aimed primarily at seizing predominant influence over its oil by establishing permanent . . . military bases.

He made this transparently clear by adding a signing statement to the defense appropriation bill, indicating that he would not be bound by the law’s prohibition against expending funds: “(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq,” or “(2) To exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.” -- Ray McGovern

McGovern was a mid-level officer in the CIA in the 1960s where his focus was analysis of Soviet policy toward Vietnam. McGovern was one of President Ronald Reagan's intelligence briefers from 1981-85; he was in charge of preparing daily security briefs for Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush, the National Security Advisor, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Cabinet.

Later, McGovern was one of several senior CIA analysts who prepared the President's Daily Brief (PDB) during the first Bush administration.

Upon retirement, McGovern was awarded the Intelligence Commendation Medal from Bush (which he later returned, see below) and worked for Washington-based non-profits before becoming co-director of the Servant Leadership School in Washington.