David Phinney writes for Iraq Slogger, May 31: Rumors of labor trafficking and abuse have plagued building contractor now completing the $592 million Baghdad embassy building project, but a State Department Inspector General investigation reported finding nothing untoward. Now an… Read moreForced labor building US Baghdad embassy?
The “Awakening in Anbar” movement, which was started in the conflicted province by local tribes and Sunni insurgents opposed to al-Qaeda’s attempts to impose its leadership, has now spread to all of the provinces bordering Baghdad and been officially renamed… Read moreIraq: “Awakening” movement resists al-Qaeda
Cindy Sheehan writes in her public diary on Daily Kos, May 28: I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since… Read moreCindy Sheehan resigns from anti-war movement
From AP, May 28: A suicide car bomber struck a busy Baghdad commercial district Monday, killing at least 21 people, setting vehicles on fire and damaging a nearby Sunni shrine, police and hospital officials said. The blast went off at… Read moreWho is behind relentless Baghdad terror?
Well said. Fortunately the Iraqwarit blog has liberated this text from the New York Times‘ elitist pay-per-view policy. From Paul Krugman‘s column, Memorial Day, May 28: Trust and Betrayal “In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America… Read moreKrugman: Bush squanders soldier’s lives
Jakob Kellenberger, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said May 24 he was not optimistic about a breakthrough in talks with Iraqi officials to gain access to up to 20,000 held in the country’s prisons. “We are… Read moreICRC still seeks access to Iraq’s prisons
In the wake of the May 22 bombing in Ankara, Turkey has ordered a convoy of tanks and armored vehicles from the southeastern city of Mardin to the Iraqi frontier. At the same time, the idea of a cross-border operation… Read moreTurkey deploys troops to Iraq border
At least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded after a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd of mourners at a funeral in Falluja, in the Iraqi province of Anbar, May 24. The funeral was for Allawi al-Isawi, a… Read moreIraq: funeral attack kills dozens
Talk about non-news. The Democratic majority, after all their hot air, agrees to drop a timetable for troop withdrawal from the war funding bill. The only real news here is how thoroughly the Republicans have set the terms for the… Read moreDems blink, Bush lies, what else is new?
Farmers in southern Iraq are turning to opium cultivation for the first time, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Traditional rice farmers along the Euphrates, outside the southern city of Diwaniya, have now abandoned rice—for which the area is famous—in favor of… Read moreIraq: opium economy takes hold in south
From the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), May 15: The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its… Read moreIraq: oil workers threaten strike
An interesting report from IraqSlogger, May 15: An unknown left-wing group calling itself the Iraqi Armed Revolutionary Resistance distributed leaflets in the Mid-Euphrates area around Najaf, Hilla and Karbala calling for “resistance against American, British and Zionist occupiers in order… Read moreMarxist insurgents emerge in Iraq?
