HOW COULD ANYONE SAY "THE SURGE" IS WORKING WHEN ALL THIS IS HAPPENING IN IRAQ?

Either President Bush is being kept in the dark about what is happening in Iraq today (Tuesday, March 11), or he simply is too stubborn to admit it, but the following is a list of killings, suicide bombings, shootings, mayhem and violence stretching from Baghdad to every province in Iraq.

Bush's pet mouthpiece, FOX NEWS, is no better. The so-called news organization continues to LIE to their viewers that all is going well in Iraq despite the fact they can access the same information as we are providing our readers here:

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

War News for Tuesday, March 11, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths Three Coalition Force Soldiers and an interpreter in a roadside bombing in an eastern Diyala province on Monday, March 10th. One other soldier were wounded in the attack.Security incidents:

Baghdad:#1: One Iraqi soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol in western Baghdad's Mansour district, police said.

#2: A car bomb went off near the building of al-Mahmoudiya local council, south of Baghdad, on Tuesday, leaving an unidentified number of civilians killed or wounded, a security source said. "A car bomb went off near a local council building in the district of al-Mahmoudiya, leaving unidentified number of civilian casualties," the source, who declined to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#3: Around 4:30 a.m. gunmen attacked the juveniles’ prison in Tobchi neighborhood in west Baghdad injuring three policemen, three prisoners and releasing five prisoners.

#4: Around 8:05 a.m. an IED exploded on the airport street in west Baghdad. No casualties were reported.

#5: A member of the local council of Yousifiyah town was killed and eight other members were injured when an IED exploded inside the building of Yousifiyah town local council south of Baghdad around 1:00 p.m.

#6: Gunmen also sprayed another bus with machine gunfire shortly after it hit a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. One person was killed and four others were wounded, police said. The bomb was apparently targeting a nearby police patrol.

#7: U.S. forces have killed five insurgents and detained 11 suspects in the past two days during operations to disrupt al Qaeda networks operating in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

#8: Police found five unidentified bodies in Baghdad. Three bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies in Jisr Diyala and 1 body in Kubra al Ghizlan neighborhood). The other two bodies were found in Amil neighborhood and Shurta the 4th in the western side of Baghdad.

Diyala Prv:#1: Three Coalition Force Soldiers and an interpreter were killed by an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Diyala province, March 10. Another Soldier was wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facility for treatment.

Karbala:#1: In another development, four police officers and a child were injured in Karbala, south of Baghdad, when a bomb went off near a downtown hospital, Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency said

Kut:#1: At least five people were killed in fierce clashes between Iraqi police and Shiite militia forces in the central city of Kut on Tuesday, police said. Iraqi forces raided three Kut neighbourhoods to nab wanted Shiite militiamen, a local police officer who did not give his name for security reasons told AFP. "The clashes are still going on. Five people have been killed including two brothers when their house was struck by a rocket," the officer said. Another eight people were wounded, including a woman and a policeman. The clashes broke out as the security forces were attacked during the raid, he said, adding that US warplanes flew in to provide aerial support to the Iraqi forces.

At least 10 people were killed in clashes between security forces and the Mehdi Army militia loyal to anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, a source at Kut's al-Zahraa hospital said.

Nasiriyah:#1: In southern Iraq, meanwhile, a roadside bomb hit a bus that was traveling from Basra to Nasiriyah, killing at least 16 civilians on board, according to a Nasiriyah policeman who spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to release the information. At least 22 others were wounded in the attack, which took place about 50 miles south of Nasiriyah. No other details were immediately available.

A roadside bomb missed a passing U.S. convoy and ripped into a bus on a highway south of Baghdad today, killing 16 passengers and injuring 17 others, Iraqi security officials said.

Tikrit:#1: At least three civilians were killed during a US air raid targeting a western part of Tikrit in northern Iraq, police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. People had told police they had heard air strikes and explosions hitting areas near their houses, sources said. When police came, three men were found dead.

Dhuluiya:#1: In a separate incident during the day, at least eight people were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and a local group. Colonel Mohammed Khalid, the local police officer said: "The suicide attack took place in Dhuluiya, 70 km from north of Baghdad, in Salaheddin province, at around 3:15pm (1215 GMT)."

Samarra:#1: A GRAVE containing 20 bodies has been found by Iraqi security forces near Samarra, just days after 100 decomposed bodies were found at another site. The most recent mass grave, containing the bodies of men, women and children, was found in a dry riverbed in an area called Al-Jillam, north-east of Samarra. The bodies appeared to be killed a long time ago, Lieutenant Muthanna al-Shakir said.

Thar Thar:#1: A suicide car bomb killed two members of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood police patrol and wounded three others when it hit their checkpoint in Thar Thar, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.

Hawija:#1: In Kirkuk, some 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, three more members of the Awakening Councils were injured when an explosive device was detonated targeting their patrol in the main road between Howeija and Abbasy districts, sources told VOI. Two police officers were also wounded when a bomb went off targeting an Iraqi patrol in the military district in central Kirkuk.

Kirkuk:#1: Two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: A policeman was injured when an IED exploded that targeted a police patrol in al Askari neighborhood in downtown Kirkuk city on Tuesday morning.

#3: Three policemen were wounded in an IED explosion that targeted emergency police patrol in al Tis’een neighborhood in downtown Kirkuk city Monday evening.

#4: A policeman was injured when an IED exploded on Kirkuk- Reyadh Street on Monday evening.#5: The head of Sahwa council of Abbasi district Oda Khalaf Zidan was injured when an IED exploded targeting his convoy west of Kirkuk city.

#6: "A U.S. helicopter shelled a vehicle carrying gas cylinders in the main street in Wana district, north of Mosul, killing three civilians," Brig. Khaled Abdul Sattar Saadon told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq

#7: "Another chopper spotted two gunmen while planting a bomb in al-Iqtessadeyeen region in western Mosul, killing one and injuring the other," the officer noted.

Mosul:#1: In Mosul, gunmen clashed Tuesday morning with police near a security checkpoint in eastern Mithaq district, the Voices of Iraq news agency cited a security official as saying. Four policemen, four gunmen and a civilian were killed in the clashes.

#2: Gunmen also opened fire on a car carrying the deputy head of Mosul University, another police officer said on condition of anonymity. The academic escaped unharmed.Al Anbar Prv:

Fallujah:#1: Two Sahwa (Awakening) tribal fighters were killed and three others wounded when a suicide bomber crashed his explosive-rigged vehicle into a Sahwa checkpoint north of the city of Falluja on Tuesday, police said. "A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vehicle near a checkpoint of the Sahwa forces in al-Tharthar, (25 km) north of Falluja, killing two and wounding three," a security source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq

Afghanistan:#1: On Monday, police clashed with Taliban fighters in Dihrawud district of the southern Uruzgan province, leaving 10 militants dead and two officers wounded, provincial police chief Gen. Juma Gul Himat said.

BLOCKBUSTER HEARINGS BEGIN THURSDAY. IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN WAR VETS TO TELL ALL ABOUT ATROCITIES

On Thursday, March 13, at least 300 Iraq and Afghanistan war vets will descend on the nation's capital to tell lawmakers what they saw with their own eyes about atrocities committed by U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The gathering will be reminiscent of the famous "Winter Soldiers" hearings during the Vietnam War when 100 Vietnam vets, including former Presidential candidate John Kerry, talked about what they had witnessed in Viet Nam.

The question is whether the press will cover it. It is a foregone conclusion that FOX NEWS, the Bush administration press lapdog, will pretty much ignore the hearings.

Hopefully, the mainstream media will not turn their back on the Iraq and Afghanistan vets as they have done lately in covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

AlterNet Editorial: Iraq Vets Will Detail U.S. Atrocities in Winter Soldier Hearings

By Editorial Staff, AlterNetPosted on March 11, 2008, Printed on March 11, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/79286/

This week, on March 13-16, a new generation of "Winter Soldiers" -- veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq -- will descend on the nation's capitol to tell America in their own words what they saw during their service in the "war on terror," the Bush administration's signature policy.

They'll give a ground's eye perspective on the occupation's toll on the people of those countries and the costs to the military, and they'll tell stories of what it was really like in places like Fallujah and Ramadi -- places that are just names on a map to most of the people back home.

They'll be following large footsteps. In the early months of 1971, a group of Vietnam vets, organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), gave two days of testimony about the Vietnam that they had seen, up close and all-too-personally, in the original "Winter Soldier" investigation.

While largely dismissed by the political establishment, their wrenching testimony redoubled the peace movement's efforts to end that war.

In his opening statement 37 years ago, William Crandell, a 26 year-old lieutenant who served in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division -- the division that committed the infamous My Lai Massacre -- told the hushed room, "The Winter Soldier Investigation is not a mock trial. There will be no phony indictments; there will be no verdict against Uncle Sam." He promised "straightforward testimony -- direct testimony -- about acts which are war crimes under international law. Acts which these men have seen and participated in. Acts which are the inexorable result of national policy."

And they did just that.

Over two days, more than a 100 vets of the Vietnam conflict bore witness to the horrors that they had seen with their own eyes -- "the inexorable result of national policy." One panel examined the question, "What are we doing to Vietnam?" and another asked "What are we doing to ourselves?"

Click on link above to read the full AlterNet editorial.

MORE PROOF "SURGE" IS A FAILURE: 9 KILLED IN MOSUL IRAQ

The success of the so-called "surge" is nothing more than a smokescreen as violence rips across Iraq.

The Voices of Iraq is reporting nine Iraqis were killed Tuesday morning in clashes at a Mosul, Iraq checkpoint.

Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Military confirmed thee more U.S. soldiers were killed in Diyala Province.

On Monday, five U.S. soldiers were killed in bomb attack in Baghdad.

9 killed in Mosul clashes

Ninewa - Voices of Iraq
Tuesday , 11 /03 /2008 Time 1:35:12

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=72442&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Ninewa, Mar 11, (VOI) – Nine people, including one civilian, was killed in clashes that erupted on Tuesday morning between policemen and unidentified gunmen near a checkpoint in the eastern part of Mosul, police said.

"Unidentified gunmen clashed with Iraqi police near a checkpoint in the neighborhood of al-Mithaq, eastern Mosul, on Tuesday.

Four policemen, four gunmen and one civilian near the scene were killed in the crossfire," the source, who asked not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI)."Policemen also seized a vehicle belonging to the gunmen," the source added.Mosul, the capital of Ninewa province, lies 402 km north of Baghdad.

ROADSIDE BOMB KILLS 3 MORE U.S. SOLDIERS: 5 U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED MONDAY IN BAGHDAD

The indictment of New York Governor Elliot Spitzer on prostitution charges on Monday all but wiped off the mainstream press any coverage that five U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday.

On Tuesday a roadside bomb killed three more U.S. soldiers in Diyala province.

The death and violence continues to escalate in Iraq, but so far the mainstream media in the United States has chosen to ignore it.

Roadside bomb kills three U.S. soldiers in Iraq

By Mohammed Abbas 53 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_dc;_ylt=AoLeJ5TdBsIaDXHkQdutSUZX6GMA

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in Iraq's Diyala province on Monday, the same day a suicide bomber killed five U.S. soldiers in the capital Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

Ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala is one of four provinces north of Baghdad where U.S. and Iraqi forces have mounted offensives this year to fight al Qaeda militants who have regrouped in the region.

The bombing in Baghdad, which the U.S. military had confirmed on Monday, was the worst single attack on U.S. forces in the capital in nearly nine months.

Also in Iraq's north, police said four Iraqi policemen, four gunmen and one civilian were killed on Tuesday in an attack on a security checkpoint in the city of Mosul, which the U.S. military says is al Qaeda's last major urban stronghold.

Monday's deaths took to at least 3,982 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Ten soldiers have been killed this month, compared to 81 in the whole of March 2007.

Violence across Iraq has dropped 60 percent since 30,000 extra U.S. troops became fully deployed in June, and a decision by Sunni tribal leaders to turn on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.

But recent attacks demonstrate that Iraq is far from safe, and a suicide car bomb in Sulaimaniya on Monday showed that even Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish north, considered the most stable region of in the country, is vulnerable.

The U.S. death toll is approaching 4,000 at a time when setting a timetable for withdrawing troops has become a central issue in the presidential election campaign.

Some 2,000 U.S. soldiers are being withdrawn from Baghdad under a Pentagon plan to pull out five brigades by July 31.

U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith used his telepathic powers on Sunday to say a recent increase in bombings was not the start of a wider trend and that violence was down overall.

Click on link above to read the full story.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE IRAQI CHILDREN GONE?

A report from the non-governmental relief organisation Save the Children shows Iraq continues to have the highest mortality for children under five. Since the first Gulf War, this has increased 150 percent.

It is estimated that one in eight children in Iraq dies before the fifth birthday: 122,000 children died in 2005 alone. Iraq has a population of about 25 million.

According to a UN Children's Fund report released this month, "at least two million Iraqi children lack adequate nutrition, according to the World Food Programme assessment of food insecurity in 2006, and face a range of other threats including interrupted education, lack of immunisation services and diarrhoea diseases."

Omar Khalif is vice-president of the Iraqi Families Association (IFA), an NGO established in 2004 to register cases of the missing and trafficked. He told reporters in January that on average at least two Iraqi children are sold by their parents every week. In addition, another four are reported missing every week.

CHILDHOOD IS DYING IN IRAQ

Inter Press Service

By Dahr Jamail and Ahmed Ali*BAQUBA, Mar 10 (IPS) -

Iraq's children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population.

The United Nations estimated that half a million Iraqi children died during more than 12 years of economic sanctions that preceded the U.S. invasion of March 2003, primarily as a result of malnutrition and disease.

But childhood malnutrition in Iraq has increased 9 percent since then, according to an Oxfam International report released last July.

Kidnapping of Iraqi children is common now, and many are believed to have been sold as child labourers or as sex workers.

Iraqi officials and aid workers have recently expressed concern over the alarming rate at which children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's unstable environment.

"The numbers are alarming," Khalif said. "There is an increase of 20 percent in the reported cases of missing children over a year."

According to the UN, 17 percent of Iraqi children are permanently out of primary school, and an estimated 220,000 more are missing school because they and their families have been displaced.

That adds up to 760,000 children out of primary school in 2006.

These are in-country figures, and do not include the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and youth whose education is interrupted or ended because their families have fled to other countries.

UNHCR estimates that at least 2.25 million Iraqis have fled their country.

Click on link to read the full story.

CNN: 5 U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN BAGHDAD BOMB ATTACK

CNN is reporting five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in bomb blast in Baghdad that also left three others seriously wounded.

This comes on the heels of President Bush and his mouthpiece FOX NEWS claiming "the surge" is working and things are improving in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

One can only wonder what Republican Congressman (R-Ind.) Mike Pence is thinking now after he told FOX NEWS' BRIT HUME last Sunday on "FOX NEWS SUNDAY" that during his recent trip to Iraq he could walk the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities and not be in fear of any violence.

When is the Bush administration and FOX NEWS going to start telling the truth about Iraq?

"The surge" is a joke and what little gains have been made were because the Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar Province got together and ran Al Qaeda out of the province. It had absolutely NOTHING to do with the U.S. military and the so-called "surge."

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that dares to tell the TRUTH about conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Officials: 5 U.S. troops killed in suicide blast

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/10/iraq.main/index.html

Story Highlights

NEW: Explosion marks deadliest attack on U.S. troops since January 28
Four U.S. troops die in blast, one dies later of wounds, officials say
Cousin says teen visited home seeking help Sunday, was told to return
Female suicide bomber kills sheik, 5-year-old niece and guard at Iraqi home

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least five U.S. soldiers on foot patrol were killed and three others wounded in a suicide bombing Monday in Baghdad, U.S. military officials in Iraq said.

Four soldiers were killed in Monday's blast and one more died later of wounds, the military said.

They were with Multi-National Division-Baghdad. An Iraqi interpreter also was wounded in the explosion, the officials said.

Initial reports indicate the bomber was wearing an explosive vest.

"Five soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the Iraqi and American people. I ask you remember these fallen heroes and their families as well as their wounded brethren in your thoughts and prayers," said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff for Multi-National Division-Baghdad. "We remain resolute in our resolve to protect the people of Iraq and kill or capture those who would bring them harm."

The explosion marks the deadliest attack against the U.S. military since five soldiers were killed January 28 in a roadside bombing in Mosul. Troops killed a Saudi insurgent whose network was responsible for that attack.

Earlier, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said one person was killed and eight people were wounded in a suicide bomb attack targeting a U.S. military convoy in western Baghdad.

It is not clear if the U.S. and Iraqi reports are about the same incident.

Monday's attack would bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month to seven. A total of 3,980 military personnel have died in the nearly 5-year-old war.

The attack came after a bomber near Baquba targeted the leader of a security group assisting U.S. troops.

The teen suicide bomber killed a sheik and a 5-year-old, a day after she went to the sheik's Kanan home claiming to need help finding her husband, police and family members said.

The female suicide bomber, 18, blew herself up at the sheik's home Monday morning, police said.

The tribal leader was the head of a local citizens group that has been working with U.S. forces to rout out insurgents. The largely Sunni security groups are known as Awakening Councils.
Kanan is east of Baquba, situated in the volatile Diyala province, which has been a major front for the "surge" of U.S.-led troops targeting militants near Baghdad.

According to one of the sheik's cousins, the teen bomber went to the sheik's house Sunday to ask him for help finding her husband -- thought to be kidnapped or detained. The 18-year-old was told to return Monday, the cousin said.

She returned Monday and staged the attack, killing the sheik, his 5-year-old niece and one of his security guards, police said.

The attack reflects both the growing use of females as suicide bombers in Iraq and the targeting of Awakening Councils, which are also known as Concerned Citizens Groups or Sons of Iraq.

The grass-roots groups, which are sometimes led by former insurgents, have drawn more than 90,000 volunteers to their ranks, military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory said Sunday.

Since November, there have been at least five attacks carried out by female suicide bombers, including a twin bombing at Baghdad pet markets last month that killed almost 100 people.
Insurgent groups, particularly al Qaeda in Iraq, are increasingly using women as suicide bombers because they are less likely to be searched, the U.S. military has said.

About an hour after the attack at the sheik's home, another suicide bomber approached Iraqi security forces in Muqdadiya and blew himself up as the forces began shooting at him.

The blast killed two civilians and wounded 20 others, including two police officers, authorities said. Muqdadiya also is in Diyala province.

In other developments:
• Two bombings in Baghdad on Monday killed an Iraqi and wounded nine others, an Interior Ministry official said. A parked car bomb exploded near an outdoor market in Shaab, a Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding seven others. A roadside bomb exploded on a highway near a U.S. military patrol in eastern Baghdad, wounding two bystanders.

• Coalition troops north of Baghdad killed five insurgents and detained 19 people in raids, the U.S. military said Monday. The Sunday raids were part of coalition forces' "untiring efforts to remove al Qaeda from Iraq," said Lt. Col. Maura Gillen, a Multi-National Forces-Iraq spokeswoman. (Editorial comment: Oh, that is swell)

THREE BOMB ATTACKS ROCK BAGHDAD

Three bombs went off in Baghdad on Monday morning killing one civilian and wounding nine others.

The attacks came one day after FOX NEWS' Brit Hume interviewed Republican Congressman Mike Pence who claimed violence has been curtailed in the Iraqi capital city.

Pence had been on a fact-finding mission and appeared Sunday of "Fox News Sunday" and boasted about how you can walk the streets of Baghdad and other cities in Iraq without the fear of suicide bombings.

Bombings in Baghdad kill civilian, wound 9

Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/10/content_7759493.htm

BAGHDAD, March 10 (Xinhua) -- A civilian was killed and nine others wounded in three bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital on Monday, an interior Ministry source said.

A KIA truck bomb parked near a mosque in the Shiite dominantly neighborhood of Shaab in northeastern Baghdad detonated in the morning, killing a civilian and wounding five others, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
In separate incident, a roadside bomb went off in the morning near the intersection of Adan neighborhood in northern the capital, wounding two people, the source said.

Also in northern Baghdad, a mortar round landed on the Muheet Street in the Kadhimiyah neighborhood, wounding two more people, he said.

FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 3 IN IRAQ

There have been 19 female suicide bombers in Iraq since the war began, and on Monday morning there was another female suicide bomber who blew herself up and killed three people near Baghdad.

Of course, we can expect the Bush Administration and their mouthpiece FOX NEWS to ignore this latest suicide attack.

Female suicide bomber kills 3 in Iraq

By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_violence

A female suicide bomber blew herself up Monday near a tribal sheik's house northeast of Baghdad, killing the sheik and two other people, a provincial police official said.

The woman, wearing an explosives belt, entered the house of Sheik Thaeir Ghadhban al-Karkhi in the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan, about 12 miles east of Baqouba in Iraq's restive Diyala province, a police official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to release the information.

The official said the sheik was killed, along with a child and a security guard. Two other people were wounded.

Female suicide bombers have been involved in at least 19 attacks or attempted attacks since the war began, including the grisly bombings of two pet markets that killed nearly 100 people on Feb. 1.

A female suicide bomber last struck in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Feb. 17, detonating after soldiers fired three bullets at her. Causalities were disputed in that attack, with Iraqi officials saying four people were killed, while the U.S. military said only the bomber died.

U.S. NAVY OFFICER IN IRAQ DISPLAYS HIS TELEPATHIC POWERS

We now have a U.S. Navy Admiral in Iraq saying the gains by insurgents and Al Qaeda is not a trend.

Rear Admiral Greg Smith said he did not think recent security gains were being reversed."I would not look at the last few weeks as an increase or a trend, but there has been a sporadic series of events that ... have resulted in significant loss of life," Smith told a news conference.

Iraqi police said 68 people died when two bombs exploded within minutes of each other in a popular, crowded shopping area in central Baghdad on Thursday evening, the deadliest single bombing in the capital since last June.

But a NAVY ADMIRAL says there is nothing to worry about.

Does anyone else find it strange that a NAVY ADMIRAL would be making statements about what is taking place on the "ground" in Iraq?

Shouldn't Rear Admiral Smith be on a ship out in the middle of the Persian Gulf somewhere and not issuing statements about ground force conditions in Iraq?

However, it must be comforting to the soldiers and Marines on the ground in Iraq to know they have a NAVY ADMIRAL who has telepathic powers and has looked into his crystal ball and predicts the recent surge in violence is just a mirage.

Upswing in Iraq attacks not a trend: U.S. military

By Michael HoldenSun Mar 9, 1:20 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_dc;_ylt=Ag22IYrWpL32j8gn.kTXY.lX6GMA

The U.S. military said on Sunday a recent increase in bombings was not the start of a wider trend in Iraq and violence had decreased overall.

U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith said he did not think recent security gains were being reversed.

"I would not look at the last few weeks as an increase or a trend, but there has been a sporadic series of events that ... have resulted in significant loss of life," Smith told a news conference.

Smith said the spate of recent attacks needed to be compared with a year ago, when thousands of civilians were dying in sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs, with U.S. troops also suffering heavy casualties.

Iraqi police said 68 people died when two bombs exploded within minutes of each other in a popular, crowded shopping area in central Baghdad on Thursday evening, the deadliest single bombing in the capital since last June.

HEADACHES

The number of violent civilian deaths rose sharply in February, the first increase in six months, after bombings which Smith blamed on al Qaeda killed more than 160 people.

BRIT HUME'S FOX NEWS SUNDAY GUEST, REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN MIKE PENCE, OVERLOOKS REAL VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

Brit Hume, Washington bureau chief and managing editor of FOX NEWS, subbed for Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" and one of his guests was Republican Congressmen (R-Ind.) Mike Pence who had just returned from Iraq and was boasting about how secure Iraq has become.

Pence did admit the peace was fragile, but he obviously didn't visit any of the areas covered in this report about violence all across Iraq.

CAR BOMBINGS, SUICIDE BOMBERS AND VIOLENCE MARK LIFE IN IRAQ

Baghdad blast toll rises to 68
Thursday: 97 Iraqis Killed, 148 Wounded
Saturday: 1 GI, 7 Iraqis Killed; 14 Iraqis Wounded; 100 Bodies Found
Friday: 27 Iraqis Killed, 33 Wounded

HadithaFour killed by a roadside bomb on the road between Haditha and Baiji

TikritOne police officer killed, three injured in bomb attack on their patrol. Two similar attacks on police patrols in the city caused no injuries. VoI says no damage was caused by these two bombs, but DPA says shops were damaged.

IskandariyaGunmen storm the house of a neighborhood supervisor, killing him and his son. Police later kill four people said to be suspects in the incident.

MosulRemotely detonated car bomb in a garage kills two civilians, injures 5.

Musayab (south of Baghdad)A boy is killed by a roadside bomb.

KarbalaPolice arrest 34 people, including 3 believed to belong to the Ahmed al-Yamani Organization. This is the outlawed messianic movement which has frequently clashed with the authorities in the Shiite south. It is unclear whether the others arrested are suspected militia members, or common criminals.

BaqubaA civilian is killed by gunmen suspected of belonging to the al Qaeda in Iraq organization.The same VoI story says that a mass grave was discovered in al-Salam district, 15 km north of Baaquba, on Sunday, without giving further details. This probably refers to the grave containing 6 bodies found in Khalis near the larger one found yesterday, reported by DPA. DPA quotes VoI as its source, but the DPA dispatch contains more information than the English language VoI posting. I'm assuming the additional information is in the Arabic report --

FallujaAll roads out of the city have been sealed by U.S. forces after a report that "terrorists" have infiltrated.

FOX NEWS' BRIT HUME allowed REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN PENCE to brag about how secure certain sections of Iraq have become. Pence must have been having lunch inside of Camp Victory when all of the above was happening in Iraq.

CHENEY'S FORMER COMPANY SUPPLIED TROOPS IN IRAQ WITH CONTAMINATED WATER

Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

The Pentagon's inspector general found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

KBR is a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co., the oil services conglomerate that Cheney once led.

Contaminated Water Makes US Troops in Iraq Sick

http://tinyurl.com/2pbjak


By LARRY MARGASAK, The Associated Press2008-03-09 09:

A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

The Pentagon's inspector general found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR's water quality "was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards" and the military-run sites "were not performing all required quality control tests."

"Therefore, water suppliers exposed U.S. forces to unmonitored and potentially unsafe water," the report said.

The problems did not extend to troops' drinking water, but rather to water used for washing, bathing, shaving and cleaning. Water used for hygiene and laundry must meet minimum safety standards under military regulations because of the potential for harmful exposure through the eyes, nose, mouth, cuts and wounds.

KBR said its water treatment "has met or exceeded all applicable military and contract standards." The company took exception to many of the inspector general's assertions. "KBR's commitment to the safety of all of its employees remains unwavering," the company said in a statement to the AP.

KBR is a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co., the oil services conglomerate that Cheney once led.

A LOOK AT THE COST OF THE IRAQ WAR LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE

War is hell - deadly, dangerous and hellishly expensive

By William D Hartung
http://www.atimes.com

But just how expensive is it? In a recent interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz asserted that the costs of the Iraq war - budgetary, economic and societal - could reach US$5 trillion.

That's a hard number to comprehend. Figuring out how many times $5 trillion would circle the globe (if we took it all in $1 bills) doesn't really help matters much, nor does estimating how many times we could paper over every square inch of Rhode Island with it.

The fact that total war costs could buy six trillion donuts for volunteers to the presidential campaigns - assuming a bulk discount - is impressive in its own way, but not all that meaningful either.

In fact, the George W Bush administration's war costs have already moved beyond the human scale of comprehension. But what if we were to try another tack? How about breaking those soaring trillions down into smaller pieces, into mere millions and billions? How much, for instance, does one week of Bush's wars cost?

Glad you asked. If we consider the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan together - which we might as well do, since we and our children and grandchildren will be paying for them together into the distant future - a conservative single-week estimate comes to $3.5 billion.

Remember, that's per week! By contrast, the whole international community spends less than $400 million per year on the International Atomic Energy Agency, the primary institution for monitoring and preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; that's less than one day's worth of war costs.

The US government spends just $1 billion per year securing and destroying loose nuclear weapons and bomb-making materials, or less than two days' worth of war costs; and Washington spends a total of just $7 billion per year on combating global warming, or a whopping two weeks' worth of war costs.

So, perhaps you're wondering, what does that $3.5 billion per week actually pay for? And how would we even know? The Bush administration submits a supplemental request - over and above the more than $500 billion per year the Pentagon is now receiving in its official budget - to pay for the purported costs of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and for the global "war on terror".

If you can stay awake long enough to read the whole 159-page document for 2008, it has some fascinating revelations.

Click on link above to read full story

FORMER DEFENSE OFFICIAL BLASTS COLLEAGUES OVER RUN-UP TO IRAQ WAR

Douglas J. Feith, who was one of the major architects in the plans for the war with Iraq, has come out with a searing account in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post on the mishandling of the invasion and the subsequent occupation of Iraq.

Ex-Defense Official Assails Colleagues Over Run-Up to War

By Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff WritersSunday, March 9, 2008; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030802724.html?sub=AR

In the first insider account of Pentagon decision-making on Iraq, one of the key architects of the war blasts former secretary of state Colin Powell, the CIA, retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former Iraq occupation chief L. Paul Bremer for mishandling the run-up to the invasion and the subsequent occupation of the country.

Douglas J. Feith, in a massive score-settling work, portrays an intelligence community and a State Department that repeatedly undermined plans he developed as undersecretary of defense for policy and conspired to undercut President Bush's policies.

Among the disclosures made by Feith in "War and Decision," scheduled for release next month by HarperCollins, is Bush's declaration, at a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that "war is inevitable." The statement came weeks before U.N. weapons inspectors reported their initial findings on Iraq and months before Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Feith, who says he took notes at the meeting, registered it as a "momentous comment."

Although he acknowledges "serious errors" in intelligence, policy and operational plans surrounding the invasion, Feith blames them on others outside the Pentagon and notes that "even the best planning" cannot avoid all problems in wartime. While he says the decision to invade was correct, he judges that the task of creating a viable and stable Iraqi government was poorly executed and remains "grimly incomplete."

Powell, Feith argues, allowed himself to be publicly portrayed as a dove, but while Powell "downplayed" the degree and urgency of Iraq's threat, he never expressed opposition to the invasion. Bremer, meanwhile, is said to have done more harm than good in Iraq.

Feith also accuses Franks of being uninterested in postwar planning, and writes that Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser during most of Feith's time in office, failed in her primary task of coordinating policy on the war.

Click on link to read the full story.

U.S. FORCES FIND MASS GRAVE IN IRAQ WITH 100 BODIES

BAGHDAD — A mass grave containing about 100 bodies was discovered Saturday in a region north of Baghdad that has seen years of intense fighting between Shiites and Sunni extremist members of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The grisly discovery came as Iraq's Sunni parliament speaker called on the nation's Shiites and Kurds to work together with the minority he represents to pass an election law that would help reconcile Iraq's often warring sects and splinter groups.

Police in Diyala reported two separate bombings Saturday in which six people were killed
.
In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the urban center of an oil-rich region, thousands of people took to the streets to protest deteriorating security in the southern city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety in December.

Its Shiite residents are becoming increasingly alarmed about security, saying that killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over security responsibility.

In February, two journalists working for CBS were kidnapped in Basra. One was released but the other, a Briton, is still being held.

A long line of marchers, estimated to be as many as 5,000 people, demonstrated near the Basra police command headquarters Saturday, demanding that the police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of joint military-police operation, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, resign.

IRAQ'S THREE CIVIL WARS. U.S. MILITARY CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE

All war situations are a little bit opaque, but from reading the Iraqi press in Arabic, I conclude that there are three major struggles for power of a political and violent sort.

What's striking is how little relevance the United States has.

It is a superpower, and it is militarily occupying the country, but it appears most frequently to be in the position of going to the parties and saying, "Hey, guys, cut it out. Make nice. Please."

It's odd that it should be so powerless in some ways, but let me explain.

Iraq's Three Civil Wars

By Juan Cole, MIT Center for International StudiesPosted on March 6, 2008, Printed on March 8, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/78672/

So, what are the three wars?

There's a war for Basra in the deep south. This is a port city on the Shatt al-Arab. It's the body of water where the Tigris and the Euphrates come together, and they flow together, then out to the Persian Gulf. In the old days, it was a major port, Al Basrah, because the ships could come up the Shatt al-Arab from the Persian Gulf. Now they'll stop instead at a smaller port named Umm Qasr near to Basra, and this is how you get things in and out of Iraq. Last I checked, Iraq was exporting 1.8 million barrels a day of petroleum. Where is it exporting from? Largely from Basra. (There is some, about 300,000 barrels a day going out through the north, but it's a relatively minor amount.) So, basically, import, export, lifeline, and petroleum, are all that is centered in Basra, and if Basra were to collapse, then Iraq collapses. I don't see how the government survives, how anything goes positive in Iraq if Basra collapses, and I cannot figure out what's causing it not to collapse. There is not a good situation down there, as I'll explain.


Then, there's a war for Baghdad. This is the one that Americans tend to know about because the U.S. troops are in Baghdad, and so it's being fought all around our guys, and we are drawn into it from time to time. The American public, when it thinks about this war, mainly thinks about attacks on U.S. troops, which are part of that war because the U.S. troops were seen by the Sunni Arabs as adjuncts to the Shiite paramilitaries, and they have really functioned that way. Most American observers of Iraq wouldn't say that the U.S. is an enabler of the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps paramilitaries of these Shiite fundamentalist parties, but you could make the case that, functionally speaking, that's how it's worked out. The U.S. has mainly taken on the remnants of the Ba'ath party, the Salafi jihadis, and other Sunni groups, and has tried to disarm them, tried to kill them, and has opened a space for the Shiite paramilitaries to claim territory and engage in ethnic cleansing and gain territory and power. So that battle between the Sunni Arabs and the Shiite Arabs is going on in Baghdad, is going on in the hinterlands of Baghdad, up to the northeast to Diyala Province, and then south to Babil and so forth.

And finally, as if all that weren't enough, there is a war in the north for control of Kirkuk, which used to be called by Saddam "Ta'mim Province". Kirkuk Province has the city of Kirkuk in it and very productive oil fields, in the old days at least. Kirkuk is not part of the Kurdistan Regional Authority, which was created by melding three northern provinces together into a super province; however, the Kurdistan Regional Authority wishes to annex Kirkuk to the authority.

Click on link above to read the full story of the Three Civil Wars in Iraq.

WHY DOESN'T DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CONFIRM THE DEATHS OF THESE FIVE SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ?

The Department of Defense has been manipulating the way they report on the deaths of U.S. soldiers from the war in Iraq.

Here is a list of five soldiers killed in Iraq, but the DoD will not confirm their deaths.

Go to this site for confirmation: http://icasualties.org/oif/

Take notice of the last sentence in this report.

Click on each soldier's name in "blue" for further information about them.

Post Iraq Deaths Not Confirmed By the DoD
Name
Date
Wasielewsk, Anthony Raymond
08-Oct-2007
Cassidy, Gerald J.
25-Sep-2007
Richards, Jack D.
29-Jul-2007
Salerno III, Raymond A.
16-Jul-2006
Smith, John "Bill"
01-Oct-2005

Note: The soldiers listed above died from wounds received in Iraq, however, the DoD has not included their deaths in their official count.

HOW DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ANNOUNCES DEATH OF U.S. SOLDIER IN IRAQ

This is how the Department of Defense announces the death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq and the wounding of another.

As you will see, the Public Affairs Office at Camp Victory in Iraq avoids using the term United States soldier, but instead refers to the U.S. soldier killed in Iraq as a "Multi National Defense-North Soldier."

The cover-up continues.

Multi-National Corps – IraqPublic Affairs Office, Camp VictoryAPO AE 09342

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17503&Itemid=128
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERELEASE No. 20080308-01March 8, 2008

MND-N Soldiers attacked in Salah Ah Din

Multi-National Division – North PAO

TIKRIT, Iraq – One Multi-National Division - North Soldier was killed from injuries sustained from an explosion while conducting operations in Diyala March 7.

One MND-N Soldier was injured during the attack and evacuated to a Coalition forces hospital.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending next of kin notification and release by the Department of Defense.

ANOTHER WAR CASUALTY: EPIDEMIC OF HEARING LOSS

A new epidemic is sweeping through soldiers and Marines who have been in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is severe hearing loss.

Up until recently, the main topic of discussion for returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan was PTSD or depression, but now it has been learned that there is an epidemic of hearing loss with troops who have been in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VA is overwhelmed with the numbers of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have severe hearing loss.

US troops losing hearing

By CHELSEA J. CARTER Associated Press Writer

http://tinyurl.com/2c9c8c

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Soldiers and Marines caught in roadside bombings and firefights in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home in epidemic numbers with permanent hearing loss and ringing in their ears, prompting the military to redouble its efforts to protect the troops from noise.

Hearing damage is the No. 1 disability in the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and some experts say the true toll could take decades to become clear.

Nearly 70,000 of the more than 1.3 million troops who have served in the two war zones are collecting disability for tinnitus, a potentially debilitating ringing in the ears, and more than 58,000 are on disability for hearing loss, the VA said.

"The numbers are staggering," said Theresa Schulz, a former audiologist with the Air Force, past president of the National Hearing Conservation Association and author of a 2004 report titled "Troops Return With Alarming Rates of Hearing Loss."

One major explanation given is the insurgency's use of a fearsome weapon the Pentagon did not fully anticipate: powerful roadside bombs. Their blasts cause violent changes in air pressure that can rupture the eardrum and break bones inside the ear.

Also, much of the fighting consists of ambushes, bombings and firefights, which come suddenly and unexpectedly, giving soldiers no time to use their military-issued hearing protection.
"They can't say, `Wait a minute, let me put my earplugs in,'" said Dr. Michael E. Hoffer, a Navy captain and one of the country's leading inner-ear specialists. "They are in the fight of their lives."

In addition, some servicemen on patrol refuse to wear earplugs for fear of dulling their senses and missing sounds that can make the difference between life and death, Hoffer and others said.

Others were not given earplugs or did not take them along when they were sent into the war zone. And some Marines weren't told how to use their specialized earplugs and inserted them incorrectly.

THE "SURGE" IN IRAQ ISN'T WORKING, BUT THE PR FOR IT HAS

There is an old bromide which says if you repeat something over and over and long enough you will get the people to believe it.

That is exactly what has been happening with "the surge" in Iraq.

The Bush administration and their propaganda machine, FOX NEWS, plus scores of Republican pundits have repeated over and over again how "the surge" is working in Iraq.

But is it?

On Thursday, two car bombs went off in Baghdad and the death toll is 83 with over 130 wounded.

On Friday, another suicide bombing took place in Mosul and the death toll is 67 with another 140 injured.

But still you have President Bush and pundits on FOX NEWS like Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Bill O'Reilly, Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer just to name a few boasting about how well "the surge" is working.

Nothing could be further from the truth and the following article by Patrick Cockburn spells out why the "surge" isn't working, but the public relations campaign for the "surge" has been a roaring success.

By Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunchPosted on March 8, 2008, Printed on March 8, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/79037/

In Baghdad the Iraqi government is eager to give the impression that peace is returning.

"Not a single sectarian murder or displacement was reported in over a month," claimed Brigadier Qasim Ata, the spokesman for the security plan for the capital.

(Editor's note: Ata's comment was made before the twin car bombings on Thursday in Baghdad)

In the US, the Surge, the dispatch of 30,000 extra American troops in the first half of 2007, is portrayed as having turned the tide in Iraq. Democrats in Congress no longer call aggressively for a withdrawal of American troops. The supposed military success in Iraq has been brandished by Senator John McCain as vindication of his prowar stance.

Seldom has the official Iraqi and American perception of what is happening in Iraq felt so different from the reality. Cocooned behind the walls of the Green Zone, defended by everybody from US soldiers to Peruvian and Ugandan mercenaries, the government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki pumps out alluring tales of life returning to normal that border on fantasy.

For instance, Brigadier Ata made his claim that there had been no sectarian murders or expulsions in the capital over the previous month on February 15, but two weeks earlier, on February 1, suicide bombers, whom the government said were al-Qa'ida, had blown themselves up killing 99 people in two bird markets in Baghdad, both situated in largely Shia districts.

So keen are the authorities to show that Sunni and Shia have stopped killing each other and overall violence is down that many deaths with an obvious sectarian motive are no longer recorded. "I think the real figure for the number of people being killed is about twice what the government says it is," said one local politician. He had just sent the death certificates of the victims of sectarian killers to the military authorities, who were steadfastly refusing to admit that anybody had died at the time and place that the bodies were discovered.

One day after Brigadier Ata claimed that there had been no sectarian killings or abductions over the previous month, prime minister Maliki himself went on a walk about in central Baghdad to demonstrate just how safe things have become. But it was the precautions taken by Maliki's bodyguards which were more revealing about the real state of security in the city.

Maliki's brief venture onto the streets and out of the Green Zone took place in the al-Mansur district of west Baghdad. This is an area of big houses and many embassies, but has been heavily fought over by Sunni and Shia in the past year. "I was in Mansur on Saturday afternoon," an Iraqi friend told me, "when, at about 3.15pm, I noticed a strange movement in the street, which was suddenly flooded by soldiers in green uniforms, led by generals and colonels, who were checking parked cars and all the buildings."

Minutes later a large convoy of vehicles appeared, with three US army Humvees in front and behind, and, in the middle, five black armoured four wheel drives They stopped in front of a famous ice cream shop called al-Ruwaad, but for fifteen minutes nobody got out of the vehicles as soldiers searched all the shops nearby. When officials and their guards did begin to emerge Maliki was in the middle of them and began to walk around.

Click on link above to read the full story.

ADMIRAL WHO OPPOSES WAR WITH IRAN COULD LOSE HIS JOB

The Bush administration appears to be getting the table set for war with Iran.

Admiral William Fallon, who oppposes going to war with Iran, will likely be removied as head of the US Central Command.

Many observers feel President Bush and Vice President Cheney are planning on taking the United States to war with Iran just before the November election.

Fallon 'may lose job over Iran war'

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=46317&sectionid=3510203

Admiral William Fallon, the head of the US Central Command, may lose his job for opposing President Bush's plans to wage war against Iran.

According to a new Esquire article by Thomas Barnett; Admiral Fallon may be prematurely 'relieved of his command' as soon as this summer to be replaced with a more 'pliable' commander.

"If that were to happen, it may well mean that the president and vice-president intend to take military action against Iran before the end of this year and don't want a commander standing in their way," says the article which will be published on March 12.

Admiral Fallon, who has been named as 'one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today' by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, opposed the troops surge in Iraq and has consistently battled with President George W. Bush to avert confrontation with Iran. The Navy admiral has vowed that an attack on Iran would 'not happen on his watch', calling the White House warmongering echelons 'not helpful'. Washington and its allies are at loggerheads with the Islamic Republic over the country's nuclear standoff with the West.

The Bush administration accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weaponry, while Tehran maintains its uranium enrichment will only provide fuel for the country's under-construction nuclear power plants. President Bush insists the military option against Iran remains on the table, while his top military experts, including Admiral Fallon, urge the White House to choose a diplomatic approach towards Tehran.

Click on link to read the full story.