Just a week after Baghdad and Ankara made a public show of pledging cooperation against the PKK, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his military staff Oct. 9 for the first time formally approved unilateral incursions into Iraqi territory… Read moreTurkish conspiracy theory: PKK pawn of NATO?
Nathaniel Deutsch, professor of religion at Swarthmore College, writes for the New York Times, Oct. 6: Save the Gnostics The United States didn’t set out to eradicate the Mandeans, one of the oldest, smallest and least understood of the many… Read moreIraq’s indigenous Gnostics make NY Times op-ed page
Iraq’s bitterly divided political leadership came together Sept. 30 to denounce a non-binding US Senate resolution approved last week that endorses the decentralization of Iraq through the establishment of semi-autonomous regions. That same day, the US Embassy in Baghdad issued… Read moreIraqi leadership unites against partition plan
The Turkish government signed an agreement with Iraq Sept. 28 to cooperate in fighting guerillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who are launching attacks on Turkey from Iraqi territory. That same day, the PKK attacked a military post in… Read moreBaghdad, Ankara pledge cooperation against defiant PKK
At least seven young men were killed in an apparent US helicopter attack on an outdoor Ramadan gathering in the Baghdad Shi’ite suburb of Abu Dshir late Sept. 27. Witnesses say the men were playing a traditional Ramadan game called… Read moreIraq: US bombs Shi’ites —again; Congress funds carnage —again
Juan Cole‘s Informed Comment blog Sept. 24 has an enlightening commentary on a Sept. 20 AP story about the Pentagon’s latest report to Congress on supposed “progress” in Iraq. Cole writes that the report, entitled “Measuring Stability and Security in… Read morePentagon data reveal grim reality of “surge” —and “resistance”
Former US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan famously spills the beans in his new memoir, The Age of Turbulence: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” (London… Read moreAlan Greenspan vs. Naomi Klein: who has rights to Iraq’s oil?
Another blow in Iraq’s escalating Sunni civil war—and further evidence that any attempt at “reconciliation” will be doomed as long as the US remains in Iraq, allowing the jihadis to pose as the “resistance,” and anyone advocating co-existence to be… Read moreIraq: occupation kiss of death for “reconciliation”
While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Sept. 24 soapbox session at Columbia University sparked high-profile protests and a media feeding-frenzy, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s appearance that same day at a Shi’ite mosque in Queens went largely unnoticed—despite the fact that… Read moreAl-Maliki does Queens, nobody protests
From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), Sept. 20: The Iraqi minister of oil (Shehristani) has requested the Iraqi Prime Minister Almaliki to arrest the leaders of the Anti-oil Law Front (Subhi Albadri; chairperson. Hassan Juma; president of GUOE and Front… Read moreIraq: oil union leaders threatened with arrest
Blackwater security guards who protect US diplomats in Iraq have been involved in at least seven serious incidents—including some which resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians—Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sept. 19. The revelation came as al-Maliki announced… Read moreDoes Iraq have authority to expel Blackwater?
From CBS News, Sept. 15: Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators marched through downtown Washington on Saturday, clashing with police at the foot of the Capitol steps where more than 190 protesters were arrested… [C]ounterprotest groups, including a contingent of… Read more190 arrested at DC anti-war protest
