At the first International Labor Conference ever held in Iraq, three of the country’s major labor organizations signed a pact in Irbil, announcing formation of a new labor confederation.
Iraq’s Central Criminal Court sentenced Muntadar al-Zaidi, the journalist accused of throwing his shoes at George W. Bush, to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign leader.
President Obama will not replace two US brigades now departing Iraq—leaving 128,000 US troops there. But nine bombings over the weekend demonstrate the survival of a Sunni insurgency.
The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq writes: “After seven years of occupation, women in Iraq still suffer from outrageous misogynist practices of the Islamist and nationalist ruling militias.”
A military jury at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell sentenced US Army First Lt. Michael Behenna to 25 years in prison after convicting him of the murder and assault of an Iraqi detainee.
Iraqi-born Dutch citizen Wesam al-Delaema pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the United States.
Some 50,000 US troops likely to remain in Iraq after President Obama fulfills his pledge to “withdraw combat troops” would still have a combat role, unnamed Pentagon officials told the New York Times.
US Army Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. was convicted on charges stemming from the 2007 deaths of four Iraqi detainees, and was given a life sentence at a court-martial at a US military base in Germany.
The Iraqi government has reopened the prison formerly called Abu Ghraib, promising to operate the facility by international standards and allow inspections by humanitarian groups.
The trial of Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist accused of throwing his shoes at George Bush, has been postponed so the court can determine if Bush’s visit was “official” and respond to the defense.
Four prisoners who were released from Guantánamo Bay and sent back to their home country of Iraq last month have been detained by authorities there and are being interrogated, Iraqi officials confirmed.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Obama administration to end the indefinite detention of journalists by the US military overseas. At least one reporter, in Iraq, is still incarcerated.
