WHY AREN'T AMERICAN JOURNALISTS COVERING IRAQ ANYMORE?

Why don't American journalists cover the Iraq war anymore? Is it "Iraq Fatigue," as so many say? Or is it because the big corporate owners of the major media in the United States have collectively decided the Iraq war is not "newsworthy"anymore?

Why does it take a journalist from a newspaper in Great Britain to report on Fallujah, Iraq where U.S. troops are trying to restore some kind of order to the city?

This blogger has found he can't depend on the U.S, media for anything that is happening in Iraq. To find out what is happening in Iraq, you have to have a long list of foreign web sites who everyday publish reports on what is taking place in Iraq.

These are legitimate news stories, but the mainstream media in the United States has turned their back on events in Iraq.

The sad part of it is the United States is now carrying the ball virtually all alone in Iraq and the U.S. still has 160,000 troops in Iraq. Virtually all of the "coalition of the willing" have pulled up stakes and headed home.

So a story like this one from The Independent in Great Britain http://tinyurl.com/2toxfd is especially interesting on two fronts. The first is it is news and the second is not a single American journalist ventured into Fallujah, Iraq to find out firsthand what is going on in the Iraqi city.

We will continue to bring readers of our blog, CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ stories and news accounts of what is happening in Iraq.

It seems like the only real AMERICAN thing to do inasmuch as so many young American lives are invested in Iraq.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/

Return to Fallujah

Three years after the devastating US assault, our correspondent enters besieged Iraqi city left without clean water, electricity and medicine

http://tinyurl.com/2toxfd

By Patrick Cockburn
The U.K. Independent

The last time I tried to drive to Fallujah, several years ago, I was caught in the ambush of an American fuel convoy and had to crawl out of the car and lie beside the road with the driver while US soldiers and guerrillas exchanged gunfire. The road is now much safer but nobody is allowed to enter Fallujah who does not come from there and can prove it through elaborate identity documents.

The city has been sealed off since November 2004 when United States Marines stormed it in an attack that left much of the city in ruins.

Its streets, with walls pock-marked with bullets and buildings reduced to a heap of concrete slabs, still look as if the fighting had finished only a few weeks ago.

I went to look at the old bridge over the Euphrates from whose steel girders Fallujans had hanged the burnt bodies of two American private security men killed by guerrillas – the incident that sparked the first battle of Fallujah. The single-lane bridge is still there, overlooked by the remains of a bombed or shelled building whose smashed roof overhangs the street and concrete slabs are held in place by rusty iron mesh.

The police chief of Fallujah, Colonel Feisal Ismail Hassan al-Zubai, was trying to show that his city was on the mend.

As we looked at the bridge a small crowd gathered and an elderly man in a brown coat shouted: "We have no electricity, we have no water."

Others confirmed that Fallujah was getting one hour's electricity a day. Colonel Feisal said there was not much he could do about the water or electricity though he did promise a man that a fence of razor wire outside his restaurant would be removed.

Fallujah may be better than it was, but it still has a very long way to go. Hospital doctors confirm that they are receiving few gunshot or bomb blast victims since the Awakening movement drove al-Qa'ida from the city over the past six months, but people still walk warily in the streets as if they expected firing to break out at any minute.

Click on link above to read the full account.

"OUR CRIMES IN IRAQ MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN:" U.K INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER

This blogger has been writing for months about how the mainstream media has turned away from covering the Iraq war, and now comes word out of The Independent in Great Britain that we are not alone in our observations.

It is a sad, sad commentary on the state of journalism in the United States when reporters and editors can spend more time on the latest on the trivial "hi"jinks of Britney Spears rather than devoting a few lines of copy to the war in Iraq where 160,000 young Americans are bogged down in a giant foreign policy mess.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, writing for the U.K. Independent, http://tinyurl.com/2q4l33
spells out in perfectly clear language the mess that has been created in Iraq and how the mainstream media has elected to bury the Iraq war.

If you read nothing else on my blog, CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ I would urge everyone who cares about the United States and the 160,000 troops in Iraq to read this account.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog dedicated to telling the TRUTH about the war in Iraq because nobody in the mainstream media is doing it anymore.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Our crimes in Iraq must not be forgotten

http://tinyurl.com/2q4l33

If the alliance was arrogant at the time of the invasion, it is even more so today

The people responsible for the war have, of course, moved on, and we must follow their fine example. Still they rise, praise be to them. Such self-belief, such resilience, no sign of weakness, no dribble of an apology. Awesome. Instead of being marched off to face war crimes tribunals they are forgiven their trespasses and rewarded generously.

The Catholic Church blesses and receives the deceiver (Mr Blair); fat banks and oil companies welcome them on boards (Jonathan Powell, Mr. Blair et al); they are called to make peace in the Middle East and lecture us on ethics ( Mr Blair and Mr Campbell) and invited in to the Cabinet (Jack Straw).

For some (still) enthusiastic warmongers – boys who never forgot the excitement of running around shooting their toy guns at strangers – the invasion and colonisation is the best thing ever.

The "surge" has worked, they declare – our boys and American soldiers are not dying in the numbers they were, and look!, Iraqis are coming out to play, buy and sell, smoke their pipes in tranquillity, and thousands are returning from exile in Syria. Hip hip hooray. For we're the jolly good fellows.

In the US with the primaries going full blast, John McCain is anointed as the noble saviour, the man who promises to crush all those aliens out there who are plotting to kill the US of A. I attended the BBC Radio 4 Alistair Cooke Lecture delivered by McCain, and what I heard was a man who uses his terrible experiences in Vietnam to justify all future wars he wants his country to wage.

Bill and Hillary both actively and tacitly supported the invasion of Iraq and never once defended the UN route. These candidates are "liberals", we are told. Only in America. None of the above are exactly in the habit of mentioning the caged of Guantanamo or the anguish of Iraqis. Obama did fleetingly touch on these ugly American transgressions, but not for long, and not with intense moral purpose. At least the guy tried, and had the guts to vote against the invasion. The others still seem to believe fervently that the attacks on 9/11 outweigh all other acts of political violence.

If the alliance, its leaders and brass bands were imperiously arrogant when they went into Iraq, they are even more so today. Failure has given them no humility at all and completes the cycle of villainy. They lied and broke international law and appear to have no duty of care towards the innocent inhabitants of that blighted land.

Iraqi deaths are now calculated at around one million. According to international organisations monitoring migrations, Iraq is going through one of the largest and most serious humanitarian crises in the world, with population displacement within and from Iraq.

Last November, cholera figures were the worst for 40 years, says an Iraqi health minister. Childhood diseases are rampant. There are relentless bombardments across the country, for reasons not given, on people unseen and labelled al-Qa'ida.

The current hand-wringing about British journalistic standards concentrates entirely on small, domestic matters.

The real shame and scandal is that air attacks on Iraq go on and on and get hardly any serious coverage. In 2006, there were 229 such raids; in 2007 there were 1,447 raids (dead uncounted and unidentified).

The ghastly, ruthless General David Petraeus says they have now reached a "sustainable level of violence". That is, at least, a truthful assessment and one that explains why we went into Iraq.

If the allies allow Iraqi Sunnis, Shias and Kurds to carry on murdering each other day after day, not so many that it turns into a full-blown civil war, we can steal their oil and control the place.

Meanwhile, here Lord Guthrie, once Chief of Staff, and others of his ilk are furious with Gordon Brown for promising that the consent of Parliament will be sought before any future war is launched by the Government. These generals have become extraordinarily bullish after the lamentable collapse of all their strategies in Iraq – thereby fending off any accountability and reasonable interrogation as to why even Basra became disillusioned with our presence.

There are, thank God, people who keep alive truth and awaken our collective conscience.

On Tuesday there is a public meeting in London (courtesy of the Stop the War Coalition) organised by Phil Shiner, public interest lawyer and an indefatigable campaigner for justice. For years he has tried to expose the brutality of some of our soldiers in Iraq who have committed heinous crimes against the populations and got away with it. At the meeting, which all good people should attend, Shiner will be talking about the British state and how it tolerates the torture, mutilations and killings of Iraqi civilians.

This Thursday the Jordanian Jamil el-Banna and Libyan Omar Deghayes go to court to argue against extradition to Spain to face charges of terrorism. These are the two men who were last year released from Guantanamo Bay, where they were caged and tortured for five years. Imagine the state of their minds and bodies, their fears of incarceration.

Here they were interrogated by our spooks and police officers, and released without charge. Yet Spain clamours for them and we will deliver them into yet another jurisdiction unless the lawyers can win the case. Helena Kennedy and Geoffrey Bindman have spoken up to defend these poor men; journalist Victoria Britten has investigated charges against them for four years and tells me she is absolutely sure they are innocent. Great Britain, Mr Brown? Tell me about it.

Just released too is the film Battle for Haditha by the exceptionally diligent director Nick Broomfield (I must remember him in my prayers). He has bravely brought to the screen an untold story of the war – the massacres of innocents by the allies in Hathida, a middle-class Sunni city where he says "couples would honeymoon on the Euphrates". Fallujah was similarly "punished". Both places at first supported the invasion and learnt to their cost that their saviours had dark intent and too many had lost their own humanity.

If Blair is elected President of the EU and either Clinton or McCain get the US presidency, the final insults will be added to the endless injury suffered by the Iraqis. They will know conclusively that there ain't no justice in the world. And some of them will turn to terrorism. And the peace we hope for will never come.
y.alibhaibrown@independent.co.uk

SUNNI MILITIAS CLASH WITH U.S. BACKED GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ

In still another sign the "surge" is crumbling, the U.S. backed Sunni militias are fighting with the U.S. backed Iraqi government.

The fragile peace process in Iraq is getting more complicated each day as various members of the warring tribal groups battle with each other and with the U.S. led Iraqi government.

There has also been an increase in the number of suicide bombings in Baghdad and even Anbar Province which not long ago was being hailed by President Bush, the U.S. military and FOX NEWS as a model of how well the "surge" is working.

Two suicide car bombings took place in Anbar Province on Tuesday killing 30 Iraqis and injuring scores of others.

U.S.-Backed Sunni "Awakening" Militias Clash with U.S.-Backed Government

By Dahr Jamail and Ahmed Ali, IPS News

Posted on February 12, 2008, Printed on February 13, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/76781/

U.S. backed Sunni militants have challenged the U.S.-backed Iraqi government in Baghdad, and demanded political power after two women were killed by government forces.

Tensions rose earlier this month when men dressed in Iraqi security personnel uniforms kidnapped two women. Their naked bodies were found later.

After the incident, the 'Awakening Groups' in Baquba, 40 km northeast of Baghdad, gave Shia police chief Gen. Ghanim al-Qureyshi until mid-day Friday to apologize and to arrest the men responsible.

"We hereby declare suspension of all co-operation with U.S. military, Iraqi security forces and the local government," Abu Abdullah, spokesman for the Awakening Council in Diyala province announced after the deadline passed.

On Saturday hundreds of members of the Awakening Council shut their offices and held three separate demonstrations in Baquba. The government in Baghdad promised to send a committee to investigate the incident, following which the Awakening Council of Diyala resumed security of the city.

Click on link above to read the full story.

VA; MORE THAN HALF OF SUICIDES WERE RESERVES AND NATIONAL GUARD FROM IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN

The alarming rate of suicide with members of the National Guard and Reserves who served in Iraq and Afghanistan is just another reminder of the tragedy of both wars.


Most vet suicides among Guard, Reserve troops
New government report raises alarm, calls for long-term mental services

The Associated Press
updated 3:39 p.m. CT, Tues., Feb. 12, 2008

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23132421/

WASHINGTON - More than half of all veterans who took their own lives after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan were members of the National Guard or Reserves, according to new government data that prompted activists on Tuesday to call for a closer examination of the problem.

A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of deaths among veterans of both wars — obtained by The Associated Press — found that Guard or Reserve members accounted for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005.

The research, conducted by the department's Office of Environmental Epidemiology, provides the first demographic look at suicides among veterans from those wars who left the military.

Joe Davis, public affairs director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the Pentagon and VA must combine efforts to track suicides among those who have served in those countries in order to get a clearer picture of the problem.

"To fix a problem, you have to define it first," Davis said.
At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard and Reserve made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq. Overall, they were nearly 28 percent of all U.S. military forces deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or in support of the operations, according to Defense Department data through the end of 2007.

Many Guard members and Reservists have done multiple tours that kept them away from home for 18 months, and that is taking a toll, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement Tuesday.

"Until this administration understands that repeated and prolonged deployments are stretching our brave men and women to the brink, we will continue to see these tragic figures," Murray said.

Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the military's effort to re-screen Guard and Reservists for mental and physical problems three months after they return home is a positive step, but a more long-term, comprehensive approach is needed to help them.

Click on link above to read the rest of the story.

By Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the blog that tells what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and with our troops returning from the wars.

U.S. MILITARY FACES UPHILL BATTLE TO STOP VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

According to this YouTube video there are over 130 militias in Iraq's Diyala Province alone who are now rebelling against the U.S. military.

The situation is grim and the prospects for peace are growing more dire as each day goes by.

As we have been mentioning on our blog, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ there has been a resurgence of violence in Baghdad and all across Iraq as the Iraqi people become more and more discontent with the inability of the Iraqi government to provide even basic services like water and electricity to Iraq.

This YouTube video explains in detail what lies ahead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dA3U6C6e7E&eurl=http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ a blog that provides the latest news from the Iraq war zone.

FOX NEWS SAYS IRAQI INSURGENTS USING "PREGNANT" GIRLS AS SUICIDE BOMBERS

You know things are heating when the "surge" in Iraq is showing signs of collapsing because FOX NEWS, the propaganda branch of the Bush White House, starts licking their chops at the "news" there is a "terror alert" because the insurgents in Iraq are supposedly using young female suicide bombers who wear fake "belly bomber" gear to make them appear to be pregnant.

John Gibson of FOX NEWS' "The Big Story" was practically ecstatic at the thought female "belly bombers" might move from Iraq to the United States.

FOX NEWS has a long history of cranking up scare tactics when things start going "south" for President Bush and the Republicans.

There have been a series of reports indicating the "surge" in Iraq is imploding. Two bombs went off in Anbar Province on Tuesday. Anabar Province was hailed by the Bush adminsitration, the U.S. military and FOX NEWS as a model for the effectiveness of the "surge."

There has also been an uptick in the deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq. Five U.S. troops were killed outside of Baghdad on Monday, and the total for February is 23 U.S. deaths and 80 wounded.

You can expect to hear about more "terrorist alerts" from the Bush administration and FOX NEWS as the race for POTUS (President of the United States) heats up, and the "surge" in Iraq cools down.

The Bush administration used scare tactics to lead the U.S. into war with Iraq. The original "scare tactic" was Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and Saddam Hussein was connected to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Neither, of course, proved to be true so the Bush adminsitration and their mouthpiece FOX NEWS started announcing "terror alerts" as a way of keeping the American public on edge.

When the "surge" showed signs of working, the "terror alerts" disappeared. But now that the "surge" is collapsing (see video below in another thread) and so it was expected the Bush White House and their Ministry of Propaganda, FOX NEWS, would come up with female "belly bombers" in Iraq even though there isn't any independent proof there are female "belly bombers."

Remember, a few weeks ago a U.S. General in Iraq said the insurgents were using young girls with Downs Syndrome as suicide bombers, but when the doctors in Iraq took a closer look at the bodies of the victims it became obvious the U.S. General was a little hasty in his announcement that the suicide bombings were carried out by young females with Downs Syndrome.

You are going to be hearing more and mor about "terror alerts" and you are also going to be hearing more and more about how the insurgents are using Iraqi females wearing fake padding to make them appear to be pregnant, but is a way to hide an explosive belt.

The Bush adminstation and FOX NEWS have honed the art of scaring Americans to a fine science and there is every indication they have started the propaganda again.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the blog that tells the truth about what is happening in Iraq and not Bush White House and FOX NEWS spin.

SURGE IN IRAQ IS TEMPORARY (VIDEO)

Click on link provided below to see and hear a video interview with Joost Hiltermann.

Joost Hiltermann is the Deputy Program Director, Middle East and North Africa for the International Crisis Group. He writes policy-focused reports on the factors that increase the risk of and drive armed conflict. His specialty is the crisis in Iraq.

J. Hiltermann: Surge may keep Iraq "stable" till US elections but policy leads to more violent civil war

Here is the video of an interview with Joost Hiltermann:

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=961&thisview=item#

IRAQ CAR BOMBS KILL MANY: TWO CBS NEWSMEN KIDNAPPED

Conditions in Iraq continue to spiral out of control.

At least 22 have been killed in two separate car bombings in Anbar Province, the Province that President Bush, General David Petraeus and FOX NEWS claims is a model of how well the "surge" has been working.

Two CBS Newsmen have also been kidnapped from a hotel in the Southern city of Basra, Iraq.

The events on Tuesday underscore again how violence in Iraq is on the upswing and all the boasting about how well the "surge" ia doing was overblown at best and most certainly premature.

Reported by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that brings readers the latest from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

IRAQ CAR BOMBS KILL 22 IN ANBAR PROVINCE. TWO CBS NEWSMEN KIDNAPPED

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=326586

Big News Network.com

Attackers have managed to penetrate heavy security in Iraq to leave two car bombs near a group of Sunni tribal leaders belonging to the Awakening Council.22 people were killed at the meeting of the U.S allies, in the western Anbar province, where the so-called Awakening Council movement against al-Qaeda emerged last year.

The blasts were also near the offices of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. But Iraqi authorities said the apparent target was the Sunni tribal heads.

Meanwhile, two journalists working for CBS News have been kidnapped by gunmen from the Palace Sultan Hotel in the southern Iraq city of Basra.Hotel staff say they were forced at gunpoint to leave the hotel by a gang of about 10 gunmen.The men in civilian clothes arrived at the hotel during the day and made inquiries about who was staying there, returning later to take away the journalists.

The Association of Iraqi Journalists has appealed to the kidnappers to release the two men.

NO MASS RETURN OF TWO MILLION IRAQI REFUGEES

The lies keep coming out of the Bush administration and then repeated by the Bush administration parrot, FOX NEWS, about how many Iraqi refugees are returning to their homes.

FOX NEWS keeps getting away with pumping out lies about conditions in Iraq because it appears as though nobody in the media is willing to take on FOX NEWS and call them exactly what they are: LIARS.

But this blogger isn't.

We will continue to point out how FOX NEWS is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Bush Administration, and their lack of reporting on the true conditions in Iraq is an insult to every man and woman serving in the United States milary and their families back in the United States.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor and host of this blog.

Iraq: Propaganda Isn't Enough for Refugees to Return

By Patrick Cockburn, Independent UKPosted on February 11, 2008, Printed on February 12, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/76653/

To show that Iraq was safe enough for the two million Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan to return, the Iraqi government organized a bus convoy last November from Damascus to Baghdad carrying 800 Iraqis home for free.

As a propaganda exercise designed to show that the Iraqi government was restoring peace, it never quite worked. The majority of the returnees said they were returning to Baghdad, not because it was safer, but because they had run out of money in Syria or their visas had expired.

There has been no mass return of the two million Iraqis who fled to Syria and Jordan or a further 2.4 million refugees who left their homes within Iraq. The latest figures from the UN High Commission for Refugees show that, on the contrary, the number of people entering Syria from Iraq was 1,200 a day in late January "while an average of 700 are going back to Iraq from Syria."

The reasons people are not going back, despite new stringent visa regulations in Syria, are that they know Baghdad is very dangerous, the chances of making a living are small and there is a continuing lack of electricity and water.

Click on link above to read the full story.

GI WHO ATTEMPTED SUICIDE SENT BACK TO IRAQ

A U.S. soldier who attempted suicide has been sent back to Iraq.

This move by the United States Army underscores why Defense Secretary Robert Gates said after the initial draw down of 30,000 troops from Iraq the Army would have to reevaluate the situation on the ground in Iraq before withdrawing anymore troops.

The problem in Iraq is the there has been a steady increase in the number of insurgent attacks both in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.

The withdrawal of 30,000 troops will bring the troop level in Iraq back down to 130,000 which was the number of troops deployed to Iraq before the "surge" began.

Sending a GI back to Iraq who has attempted suicide indicates how desperate the U.S. Army is for additional troops in Iraq.

Many of those assigned to Iraq are on their third and fourth rotations and the Army is stretched thin and the equipment is wearing out.

However, the mainstream press in the United States continues to ignore the dire circumstances in Iraq.

It is the job of this blogger, Bill Corcoran, Chicago, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ to not let stories like this one go unreported.


Soldier, After Bipolar Treatment and Suicide Attempts, Sent Back to Iraq

Published: February 11, 2008 7:30 AM ET

http://tinyurl.com/yo42q2

FORT CARSON A Fort Carson soldier who says he was in treatment at Cedar Springs Hospital for bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse was released early and ordered to deploy to the Middle East with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team.The 28-year-old specialist spent 31 days in Kuwait and was returned to Fort Carson on Dec. 31 after health care professionals in Kuwait concurred that his symptoms met criteria for bipolar disorder and “some paranoia and possible homicidal

tendencies,” according to e-mails obtained by a Denver newspaper.The soldier, who asked not to be identified because of the stigma surrounding mental illness and because he will seek employment when he leaves the Army, said he checked himself into Cedar Springs on Nov. 9 or Nov. 10 after he attempted suicide while under the influence of alcohol.

He said his treatment was supposed to end Dec. 10, but his commanding officers showed up at the hospital Nov. 29 and ordered him to leave.“I was pulled out to deploy,” said the soldier, who has three years in the Army and has served a tour in Iraq.Soldiers from Fort Carson and across the country have complained they were sent to combat zones despite medical conditions that should have prevented their deployment.

Late last year, Fort Carson said it sent 79 soldiers who were considered medical “no-gos” overseas. Officials said the soldiers were placed in light-duty jobs and are receiving treatment there. So far, at least six soldiers have been returned.

Read the rest of the story by clicking on link above.

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.

BREAKING NEWS: CAR BOMB KILLS 23 IN IRAQ

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates got a first hand look at how conditions are worsening in Iraq when he visited Baghdad on Sunday.

Shortly after Gates' arrival a car bomb exploded in nearby Balad killing 23 Iraqi civilians and injuring scores of others.

The latest episode underscores the reason many are saying the "surge" is no longer working and violence and mayhem are on the rise in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.

Reported by Bill Corcoran, editor of this blog devoted to telling the truth about events in Iraq and not Bush White House "spin."

Car bomb in Balad kills 23, U.S. military says

U.S. defense secretary in Baghdad to talk about future relations
MSNBC News Services

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed 23 people and wounded 25 more in a market in the Iraqi town of Balad on Sunday, the U.S. military said.

A spokesman said the blast occurred near an Iraqi army checkpoint, adding the wounded were being rushed to hospital. Balad lies north of Baghdad.

The violence came as the U.S. military said impatience with slow improvements to basic services like electricity and water could reverse recent security gains in Iraq, especially Anbar province, a former al-Qaida stronghold.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Iraq on Sunday for meetings with Iraqi officials and U.S. commanders to discuss U.S. troop levels in the light of improving security and to prepare talks on a pact that will define future relations between Washington and Baghdad
.
Villages attackedInsurgents stormed two villages in northwestern Iraq on Sunday but were repelled by U.S.-allied fighters and Iraqi security forces in clashes that left at least 22 people dead, according to local authorities.

The attack began about 5 a.m. when about 25 carloads of heavily armed gunmen drove into the villages of Khams Tlol and al-Madina, about 50 miles west of Mosul, said Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba, a Sunni lawmaker and the head of the anti-al-Qaida group in Mosul.

He said villagers fought back against the militants, who were wielding rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault rifles, prompting clashes that lasted about five hours.

An Iraqi army officer in Mosul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose the information, confirmed the attack and said the fighting ended after Iraqi soldiers joined the battle.

Those killed included 10 militants and six members of the so-called Awakening Group in the area, as well as four women and two children, the officials said, adding that 10 civilians were wounded in the clashes.

The U.S. military in northern Iraq did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
'Essential services' lackingWith Iraq's Shiite-led government deadlocked on the 2008 budget and other major measures, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith said that Iraq needed to take advantage of security gains to improve the lives of Sunni Arabs.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23096440/

BUSH ADMITS TO WANTING U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ FOR MANY YEARS

President George W. Bush on Sunday said he would seek a plan to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for "many years," but not establish permanent military bases.

Once again Bush is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

How do you keep troops in Iraq and not have them living in permanent military bases?

What does Bush want the troops to do? Live in pup tents in the desert?

Bush apparently assumes everyone is as dumb as his sycophants at FOX NEWS who buy hook, line and sinker everything that comes out of his pie hole.

From the day the Iraq war started, Bush, Cheney and the evil cabal inside the Bush White House have used the U.S. military like pawns in a chess game.

The Bush White House has tried to hold down spending for veterans returning from Iraq with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) by saying it is not a mental illness.

There are also reports on my blog http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ of a growing epidemic of bacterial infections U.S. troops are bringing back to the United States which the media conveniently has swept under the rug.

Almost 4,000 U.S. troops have been KILLED in Iraq, including five on Saturday, and there are close to 30,000 wounded veterans from the Iraq War who are not receiving the proper care at the woefully understaffed and under-equipped military hospitals in the United States.

The so-called "surge" is IMPLODING as Sunni brigades, who were friendly to U.S. forces, have gone on strike because the police chief in Diyala, Province Iraq is corrupt.

Headless bodies are continuing to be found in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.

The Iraqi infrastructure is in chaos and there is very little fresh water and electricity.

Angelina Jolie, the superstar actress, visited Baghdad this past week (see reports on my blog http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ with YouTube videos) as a UN representative trying to get to the root of the spiraling out of control Iraqi refugee problem that has displaced millions of Iraqi citizens since the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq.

There are now reports more Iraqis are leaving Iraq than Iraqis returning to Iraq.

And to add to the growing mess in Iraq, there is now a move to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the puppet PM who was put up for the job by the United States government. Al-Maliki's government is totally worthless and all confidence in his rule has been lost by warring members of Iraqi tribes.

In short, Iraq is a total mess and President Bush apparently has no clue as to what to do except to say he wants U.S. troops in Iraq for an eternity.

Easy for Bush to say. After January 21 of 2009, Bush will be resting on his derriere in Crawford, Texas while the mess he has left in Iraq will be up to the next President of the United States to try and fix.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, Chicago, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the ONLY place in the United States you can find the REAL truth about what is happening in Iraq and a veteran of the United States Army Combat Engineers.

US defense secretary on surprise visit to Iraq

Bush admits seeking military presence in Iraq for ‘years’ but pledges not to establish permanent bases.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=24267

BAGHDAD - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday for talks with top US military commanders and Iraqi leaders to assess progress on the security and political fronts.

Gates, on his seventh trip to Iraq, will meet the head of US armed forces in the country, General David Petraeus, to discuss prospects for a possible drawdown of American troops.

"I will obviously be interested in hearing General Petraeus about his evaluation, where he stands and what more work he feels he needs to do before he is ready to come back with his recommendations," he told reporters travelling with him on the plane from Germany to Iraq.
Gates, who was last in Iraq in December, is due to give his recommendations to the US Congress in April about troop numbers in Iraq, where the military currently has a force of about 160,000.

About 20,000 are expected to go home by July.

In Baghdad, Gates will also meet Iraqi leaders to discuss progress on the political front, including the adoption of legislation such as a controversial reconciliation law which allows members of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party to return to public life.

He arrived in Iraq shortly before the one-year anniversary of a US troop surge designed to improve security in Baghdad, although the country continues to battle a deadly insurgency.

Underscoring the continued violence, 23 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in a marketplace in a village in central Iraq around the time of Gates's arrival.

The frequency of attacks on US troops in the Iraqi capital has picked up noticeably in the past weeks, with 13 killed so far this month.

Last month 40 soldiers died, almost double the number killed in December and on a par with casualty figures recorded in October and November.

A total of 3,957 have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to a tally based on the website www.icasualties.org.

In an interview earlier Sunday, US President George W. Bush acknowledged the United States would seek a military presence in Iraq for "years" but pledged he would not establish permanent bases.

Bush brushed aside concerns expressed by critics that a Status of Forces Agreement Washington is discussing with the Baghdad government would commit future US presidents to a long-term deployment in Iraq.

"We won't have permanent bases," Bush told Fox New television.

Last week, Gates said the United States would make no commitments to the defence of Iraq in the status of forces agreement.

Gates had previously said the agreement, which is expected to be discussed by the two sides at a meeting later this month, would not provide for permanent bases in Iraq or establish US force levels.

The opposition Democratic Party candidates for the presidency have promised to rapidly withdraw remaining US forces from Iraq, but may find their margin of manoeuvre limited by any prior agreement.

Gates said last week it would be difficult to persuade Iraq to accept even a short extension of the UN resolution to allow a new US administration to negotiate the status of forces agreement.

"They don't want permanent bases either. They are interested in asserting their sovereignty," he said.

U.S. SUNNI ALLIES GO ON STRIKE IN IRAQ: CLAIM POLICE CHIEF IS CORRUPT

There continues to be growing signs the "surge" is about to implode in Iraq.

Members of a Sunni brigade, who have been working with U.S. troops in Diyala Province, Iraq, went on strike alleging the chief of police of the province is corrupt.

In other parts of Iraq the violence and mayhem continue unabated with more decapitated bodies found outside of Baghdad and five U.S. soldiers killed near Baghdad when a roadside bomb blew up their Humvee.

As we have been reporting, the media in the United States continues to look the other way when it comes to reporting on what is happening in Iraq.

The shame of it all is we have 160,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq who are caught in the middle of what appears to be an insurrection with certain Sunni brigades who had been friendly to U.S. forces going on strike.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog which brings readers up-to-the-minute reports on what is taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan which are no longer covered by the mainstream media in the United States.

America's Sunni allies go on strike in Iraq's Diyala province

Steve Lannen McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/27147.html

BAGHDAD — Members of U.S.-allied citizen brigades, which are credited with helping to tamp down violence in many parts of Iraq, went on strike Friday in Diyala province, alleging that the provincial police chief there is running a death squad.

A leader of the group said that brigade members, most of them Sunni Muslims, wouldn't resume working with U.S. and Iraqi government forces until the Shiite police chief resigns or is indicted.

A curfew was imposed, and police throughout the province ended their patrols early to avoid clashes with the U.S.-funded concerned local citizens, or "popular committees" as they're known in Diyala, who staged demonstrations against the police chief. No casualties were reported.

The strike highlights the tenuous relationship between U.S.-allied Sunni-dominated citizen militias and the Shiite-dominated, U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces.

Click on link to read full story.

DRUG-RESISTANT SUPERGERM INFECTING U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ

The Invisible Enemy

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/enemy.html

The Pentagon created the perfect machine for saving the lives of soldiers wounded in Iraq. But then GIs started getting sick. The culprit: a drug-resistant supergerm infecting the military’s evacuation chain.

By Steve Silberman

A homemade bomb exploded under a Humvee in Anbar province, Iraq, on August 21, 2004.

The blast flipped the vehicle into the air, killing two US marines and wounding another - a soft-spoken 20-year-old named Jonathan Gadsden who was near the end of his second tour of duty.

In previous wars, he would have died within hours. His skull and ribs were fractured, his neck was broken, his back was badly burned, and his stomach had been perforated by shrapnel and debris.

Gadsden got out of the war zone alive because of the Department of Defense's network of frontline trauma care and rapid air transport known as the evacuation chain. Minutes after the attack, a helicopter touched down in the desert. Combat medics stanched the marine's bleeding, inflated his collapsed lung, and eased his pain.

He was airlifted to the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, located in an old health care facility called the Ibn Sina, which had formerly catered to the Baathist elite. Army surgeons there repaired Gadsden's cranium, removed his injured spleen, and pumped him full of broad-spectrum antibiotics to ward off infection.

Three days later, he was flown to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest American military hospital in Europe. He was treated for his burns, and his spine was stabilized for the 18-hour flight to the US. Just a week after nearly dying in the desert, Gadsden was recuperating at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, with his mother, Zeada, at his bedside.

The surgeons, nurses, medics, and pilots of the evacuation chain have saved thousands of lives. Soldiers wounded in Vietnam were six weeks of transit time away from US hospitals, and one out of every four of them died.

By contrast, a soldier's odds of surviving battle injuries in Iraq are nine out of 10. Unfortunately, this remarkable advance in battlefield logistics has also resulted in an increase in the number of traumatically injured patients who are particularly susceptible to infections during their recovery.

In Gadsden's case, from the moment he was carried into the Ibn Sina, the injured marine was in the crosshairs of an enemy he didn't even know was there.

At first, he did quite well. By early September, Gadsden was weaned off his ventilator and breathing on his own. For weeks he gradually improved. His buddies took him to a Washington Redskins game in his wheelchair, and the next day he navigated 50 feet with a walker. Soon Gadsden was transferred to a veterans' hospital in Florida called the James A. Haley Medical Center, where he offered to serve as the eyes of a fellow marine blinded in an ambush. The doctors told Zeada that her son might be able to go home by the end of October.

But he still had mysterious symptoms that he couldn't shake, like headaches, rashes, and intermittent fevers.

His doctors gave him CT scans, laxatives, methadone, beta-blockers, Xanax, more surgery, and more antibiotics. An accurate evaluation of his case was difficult, however, because portions of his medical records never arrived from Bethesda. If they had, they would have shown a positive test for a kind of bacteria called Acinetobacter baumannii.

Go back to link to read the full story

By Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE.

FIVE U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ

The U.S. military has announce five U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad and Kirkuk.

IED'S CLAIM LIVES OF FIVE U.S. SOLDIERS

http://tinyurl.com/34cl8r

Five US soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad and Kirkuk, US military said in statements on Saturday.

Five US soldiers were killed Friday in Iraq in two separate attacks, including one in Baghdad, the. "Four (US) soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device while the soldiers were conducting a combat patrol northwest of Baghdad" on Friday, said the US military. Another soldier was killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in the At Tamim province north of Baghdad on Friday, said another statement.

Three soldiers were also wounded and transported to a coalition forces medical facility for treatment, it added.The names of the deceased are being withheld pending next of kin notification and release by the Department of Defense.

The latest deaths brings to 3,957 the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to a tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org. The frequency of attacks on US troops in Baghdad has picked up noticeably in the past weeks.

Since the beginning of January, coalition soldiers have been targeted in attacks with improvised explosive devices (IEDS) once every three days on average, according to US military commanders.

Explosive devices are the main cause of US deaths in Iraq.

TROOPS FROM IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN BRING BACK DEADLY BACTERIA

New Bacterial Infection Linked to Military

Report: Troops Transmitted Mysterious Bacteria That Has Killed 7 And Affected Military And Civilians Alike

By JOHN HENDREN
Feb. 8, 2008—

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Germs/story?id=4233448&page=1

Troops arriving home from Iraq and Afghanistan have been carrying a mysterious, deadly bacteria, according to a new magazine report.

Doctors have linked the bacterium acinetobacter baumannii to at least seven deaths, as well as to loss of limbs and other severe ailments, according to the report, which found the bacterium has spread quickly since the war in Afghanistan began in the fall of 2001

Acinetobacter baumannii has been found in military hospitals in Germany, the Washington, D.C., area and Texas -- the primary destinations of wounded service members from the two war zones. And it has now spread to civilians, according to the report.

"The outbreak began traveling with patients or nonpatients from Iraq all the way back to Walter Reed," said Dr. Rox Anderson at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Timothy Endy, a retired Army colonel now teaching infectious disease medicine at the Upstate Medical University of the State University of New York, said the outbreak might be the largest of its kind to spread through hospitals in history.

Doctors quoted in the magazine article agreed. "Of the infectious disease problems that come out of the conflict, it is the most important complication we've seen," Dr. Glenn Wortmann, acting chief of infectious disease at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said in the February issue of Proceedings, published by the U.S. Naval Institute, a professional organization focused on naval issues.

The report was released to subscribers of the magazine this week.

IRAQ; THE BLOODY DISASTER IS WORKING

There is good news and bad news coming out of Iraq.

First, we will report the good news: In Iraq this week, officials say a school got a fresh coat of paint.

And now for the bad news about Iraq. It is going to take more than one sentence.

This is not the kind of news the Bush administration's cheerleader, FOX NEWS, reports. No way. According to Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and Fred Barnes the "surge" has been a roaring success.

It is hard to believe these so-called journalists at FOX NEWS can put blinders on and not report what is REALLY happening in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.

But they do, and the worst part of it is they have an audience of lemmings who watch and listen and believe every word the FOX NEWS anchors and pundits utter.

Below is a list of just a "few" of the things that have been going on in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq that FOX NEWS deems is not worth reporting.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the ONLY blog in the United States dedicated to telling the truth about conditions on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq: the Bloody Disaster is Working

By AlterNet Staff, AlterNetPosted on February 8, 2008, Printed on February 9, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/76409/

Iraq to Scrap Food Program by June to Comply with World Bank
By Ali JawadAzzaman

The government has decided to end the rationing food program which has saved millions of Iraqis from starvation.
The decision, the government said, was in line with the obligations it has made to the World Bank.
But Finance Ministry officials, refusing to be named, said they opposed the move and feared it could lead to unexpected hikes in food prices.
The government said it was also determined to end fuel subsidies, but it declined to say when.
The food rationing system was started by former leader Saddam Hussein to offset the hardships emanating from U.N. trade sanctions.
For nearly 13 years, the program continued without hiccups with the United Nations praising it as the world's largest and most effective relief effort.
But the program has run into serious trouble since U.S. troops landed in Baghdad. The volume of rations was slashed several times and food failed to reach many beneficiaries.
The system which cost the treasury billions of dollars a year was mired in corruption.
The government took the decision without parliamentary approval.
Analysts say millions of Iraqis will be affected, particularly families with no income earners and the jobless -- currently estimated at about 40 of the workforce.

Iraq Braced for More Cholera Outbreaks

By Emad al-Shara'Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Health experts are warning that the country could be hit by new cases of cholera once temperatures start to rise.
The government said its last cholera case was recorded in late November and has credited a public-awareness campaign and the colder winter temperatures for halting the spread of the disease. However, doctors warn that cholera could recur as summer approaches because of poor sanitation.
Adil Abdul-Muhsin, general inspector at the ministry of health, said that Iraq suffered its worst bout of cholera for forty years, with 4,691 cases, resulting in 24 fatalities.
Deputy Health Minister Amir al-Khuza'i said the ministry of health has "totally controlled the disease."
"There aren't any cholera cases in Baghdad or in any other provinces," he said.
But doctors say it's only a matter of time before the disease reappears.
"Nothing can prevent a cholera outbreak next summer," said Ni'man Mohammad, a physician in Baghdad.
Read more here.

Iraqi Official: Baghdad Is Drowning In Sewage

Agence France Presse

Baghdad is drowning in sewage, thirsty for water and largely powerless, an Iraqi official said on Sunday in a grim assessment of services in the capital five years after the US-led invasion.
One of three sewage treatment plants is out of commission, one is working at stuttering capacity while a pipe blockage in the third means sewage is forming a foul lake so large it can be seen "as a big black spot on Google Earth," said Tahseen Sheikhly, civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security plan.
Sheikhly told a news conference in the capital that water pipes, where they exist, are so old that it is not possible to pump water at a sufficient rate to meet demands -- leaving many neighbourhoods parched.
Read more here.

Row Over Killing of Iraqi FamilyBBC News

An Iraqi couple and their son, 19, have been killed when US soldiers stormed a tiny one-room house north of Baghdad.
The US military says its troops killed the two men in self-defence after gunfire came from the house, but local people say the victims were unarmed.
At least one of the couple's daughters was also wounded in the raid, in the village of al-Dawr, near Tikrit.
The military said it was unclear who had fired at the female casualties and the incident is being investigated.
Read more here.

Parliament Walkout Freezes Bill on Iraqi Local Elections
Gulf News
Editor's note: this is the latest chapter in an ongoing power struggle between the executive branch headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cabinet, and the Iraqi legislature
Baghdad: Dozens of Iraqi legislators walked out of parliament to protest parts of a draft law that would lay out rules for provincial elections later this year.
Thursday's walkout by nearly 90 members of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Kurdish allies postponed a planned vote on the measure on redistributing power in Iraq.
The main sticking point was a dispute over whether the authority to fire provincial governors should rest with the prime minister or with the Iraq's governing councils.
Council members walked out after lawmakers approved giving power to the prime minister. Voting on the rest of the 56-point package was scheduled to resume on Saturday.

Orphans Face Uncertain Future
By Hazim al-Shara' Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Five-year-old Layla Mohammad clings to one memory: her mother combing Layla's hair, styling it like the popular Lebanese singer, Nancy.
A year and a half ago, a bomb ripped through a market in Sadr City in Baghdad, killing Layla's mother, father and two-year-old brother.
"After her parents died, Layla became afraid of markets and crowded places. She thinks that someone will blow himself up," said her grandmother Bardia Hassun.
Hassun said her late son was the breadwinner of the family, supporting four of his sisters and his mother in addition to his wife and children. Layla and her grandmother are now reduced to begging, the latter concerned that she won't have enough money to send her granddaughter to school next year.
"When Layla became an orphan, we also became orphans," said Hassun. "We have no one to take care of us."
There are no accurate statistics on how many orphans are in Iraq. Government sources estimate the figure ranges from the hundreds of thousands to upwards of four to five million.
With little support from the government or non-profit organisations, most orphans are taken in by family members, in line with Islamic tradition. Because of Iraq's weak economy and its high inflation, many of those families barely make ends meet themselves. According to United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, most Iraqi families are facing additional economic difficulties as they take in other family members.
Abeer Mahdi, head of orphanages at the ministry of social affairs, said that most Iraqis refuse to send orphans to orphanages even if they can better care for them. There are currently 19 orphanages housing about 420 children in Iraq.
"The extended families are usually taking care of the orphans, even if they can't provide them a suitable environment in terms of food, clothing and education," he said.
"It is impossible to create a family-oriented environment" in an orphanage, said one woman who recently took guardianship of a three-year-old girl.
The woman, who asked not to be named, was standing with the child, waiting for food from an aid organisation.
The problems facing Iraqi orphans came to light in June 2007, when US Marines found children in an orphanage for children with special needs tied to beds and starving.
Read more here.

U.S. Admits Killing Iraqi CiviliansBBC News
The US military has admitted accidentally killing nine Iraqi civilians, including a child, during raids south of Baghdad.
In a statement, it said the civilian deaths occurred on Saturday near the town of Iskandariya, 50km (30 miles) from the Iraqi capital.
It added that three more civilians, two of them children, were wounded "as coalition forces pursued al-Qaeda."
Witnesses say 20 people were killed in an US air strike in the area.
They said the dead included 17 members of the same family.
Read more here.

VP Supports Forming New GovernmentVoices of Iraq

(via Iraq Updates)
Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel al-Mahdi on Thursday expressed his support for forming entirely new government.
Speaking at a press conference held in Najaf, Abdel Mahdi said, "I supported making complete changes to the government, bringing in new efficient ministers unaffected by the quota system."
Yet, he also called for considering "the power of he parliamentary blocs for the new government since the prime minister can not go to parliament without holding the confidence for approving his government," he pointed out.
Read more here.

No Improvement in Electricity Output

- Minister By Falah al-MaamouriAzzaman
There has been no improvement in the production of electricity in the country in the past 12 moths, Minister of Electricity Kareem Waheed said.
Waheed warned hard-hit Iraqi households not to expect better power supplies before 2011.
Waheed's remarks come as most of the country is currently plunged into darkness with the national grid barely capable of providing two hours of continuous supply a day.
The minister said the electrical sector's stagnation was not due to lack of allocations. In a press conference in Baghdad, he gave no figures but it is estimated that his ministry's budget has been in billions of dollars since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
He said he hoped Iraqis will see 'tangible improvement' by the end of 2008 as new power plants with a total capacity he estimated at more than 1000 megawatts come on stream.
Correspondents say the minister made similar promises at the start of 2007 but instead of improvement power output plunged to levels unseen before.
Read more here.

Members of Sadr Movement in Iraqi Parliament Urge Cleric not to Renew Ceasefire with U.S.
Middle East Online
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Thursday warned members of his Mahdi Army militia not to break a six-month ceasefire as his fighters clashed with US and Iraqi soldiers in Baghdad.
"Any member of the Mahdi Army who conducts violent acts during the ceasefire will no longer be part of the Mahdi Army," Sadr's spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi said in Najaf, a shrine city in central Iraq.
Leading members of the Sadr movement in parliament have urged the anti-American cleric not to renew the ceasefire he declared last August 29 because, they say, security forces are persecuting their members.
Earlier this month, Obeidi gave notice that Sadr was considering ending the ceasefire because the security services had been infiltrated by "criminals."
Read more here.

Radical Shiite Group Raises New Security Concerns
By Basil AdasGulf News
The emergence of the radical Shiite organisation Ansar Al Mahdi has raised many questions among Shiite political groups. They include its size and number of supporters in Iraq and abroad and whether the group is part of the "Heaven's Army" organisation or a separate extremist religious organisation.
The group's emergence has also raised fears of possible security outbreaks in Shiite southern provinces, especially after the bloody events in Basra and Nasiriyah.
"The Ansar Al Mahdi organisation led by Abu Hassan Al Yamani was established in 1998 and led by Al Yamani himself, whose real name is Ahmad Esmail Gate'a Al Siamer, an engineering graduate who later studied Sharia and fiqh science," said Mohan Al Fahad Al Fareji, Basra chief commander in a statement to Gulf News.
"Al Yamani is an Iraqi citizen from Basra, he used the Al Mahdi name to recruit people," he added.
The Iraqi military official said that most of those recruited for the Al Yamani organisation are unemployed and poor people and many are illiterate.
Al Fareji said about 10 out of 250 are educated, adding that hundreds of Ansar Al Mahdi members are gunmen from Basra and other southern provinces and that Al Yamani is hiding in Najaf or a province close to it.
Read more here.

Kurds Say They'll Leave Government if Demands not Met
By Kareem ZairAzzaman
The Kurds will withdraw from the government of Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki if their share of the country's oil revenues is reduced.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of parliament, and a veteran Kurdish politician accused "certain political factions" in the government of attempts to "slash the gains Kurds have made" since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the regime of former leader Saddam Hussein.
Othman accused some Arab parliamentary blocs, both Shiite and Sunni, of attempts to "ignite Arab-Kurdish strife."
Tension between Arab Sunnis and Shiites has subsided recently with tribal leaders, clergymen and politicians of both sides working together to reduce levels of violence.
Othman said both Arab Sunnis and Shiites were trying to undermine the Kurds.
Read more here.

There is also late BREAKING NEWS that the Iraqi government is revamping and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is going to be ousted. More developments as details are learned. Keep coming back to this blog for the latest.