Iraq

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Troops in Iraq Face Final Challenge: Moving Out

US military prepares to remove equipment from Iraq

(Newser) - As the US military reduces its presence in Iraq, it faces the logistical challenge of moving all the equipment it brought to the country during the nearly six-year war effort, the Los Angeles Times reports. Unlike personnel, much of the equipment used in Iraq will remain in the region, stored...

Obama's Not One of Us, Says Socialist
Obama's Not
One of Us,
Says Socialist
OPINION

Obama's Not One of Us, Says Socialist

Lefty says prez sticks to center; a socialist only to 'odd conservatives'

(Newser) - Thanks to conservative politicians and pundits, socialists are in the limelight as never before, writes Billy Wharton in the Washington Post—and Wharton, as editor of Socialist magazine, ought to know. Mike Huckabee and John McCain became "our most effective promoters," he says, as they portrayed Obama...

Bin Laden Tape Calls Gaza Offensive a 'Holocaust'

(Newser) - A tape recording attributed to Osama bin Laden supports the Palestinian cause and says some Arab leaders have “conspired” with the US and Israel against it, CNN reports. “The Gaza holocaust is a historic event and a tragic turning point,” says the tape, aired on the Al-Jazeera...

Amnesty Moves to Stop 128 Iraqi Executions

Says international standards may have been ignored in trials

(Newser) - Amnesty International has called for Iraq not to execute 128 prisoners sentenced to death, saying their trials may not have conformed with international rules, Reuters reports. Amnesty says Iraq should release the names of and charges against the prisoners, noting that capital punishment is an ineffective threat when suicide bombing...

Shoe Hurler Gets 3 Years in Prison

Zaidi convicted of assaulting a foreign head of state

(Newser) - The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George W. Bush during a Baghdad press conference has been sentenced to three years in prison, the Guardian reports. Muntadar al-Zaidi had pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting a foreign head of state, saying his actions were "a natural response...

Top Saddam Aides Get 15 Years for Killings

'Down with the occupiers,' his half-bro shouts as sentence is read

(Newser) - Saddam Hussein’s ex-foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, and his cousin “Chemical Ali” al-Majid were both sentenced today to 15 years in prison for their involvement in the 1992 execution of 42 Baghdad merchants. The pair was among eight defendants, and only one—then governor of Iraq’s central bank—...

Special Courts Deal With Problem Vets

New system aims to rehabilitate returning troops

(Newser) - After returning from war, many “perfectly good kids” struggle with drugs and criminal behavior, but a new trend could help, the Los Angeles Times reports. Veterans courts are springing up around the country, offering an alternative route to justice—and recovery—for troubled former troops. “If they've been...

Bomber Kills 33 at Iraqi Tribal Peace Conference

Army chief among the dead at gathering of tribal leaders

(Newser) - At least 33 were killed and another 46 injured today in a suicide car bombing in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad, the BBC reports. The attack appeared to be targeting a peace conference that aimed to reconcile Iraq’s various tribal groups. A local army chief is among the...

12K US Troops to Leave Iraq by Fall

US will turn over facilities to Iraqi control starting this month

(Newser) - A total of 12000 American and 4000 British troops will leave Iraq by September, the US military said today, just hours after a suicide bomber killed 32 people at the entrance of Baghdad's main police academy. The blast—the second major attack to hit Iraqis in 3 days and the...

Suicide Bomber Kills 28 at Baghdad Police Academy

Police recruits targeted as US prepares to withdraw

(Newser) - At least 28 people were killed and 57 wounded today when a suicide bomber struck Baghdad's main police academy, Reuters reports. The attack, carried out by a man on a motorbike wearing a vest packed with explosives, marks the first major strike in Baghdad in over a month. Police recruits...

Blackwater Founder Steps Down as CEO

Now called Xe, security company regroups, changes focus

(Newser) - Blackwater Security founder Erik Prince stepped down today as CEO of the private security company he built into one of the world's most respected—only to see it become reviled for a 2007 Baghdad massacre in which his testimony incurred congressional wrath, the AP reports. Prince expressed pride in Blackwater,...

Obama: Iraq War Ends by Aug. 31, 2010

(Newser) - President Obama didn’t mince his words in his address at Camp Lejeune, NC, today. “By Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end,” he declared, earning his first applause from the audience of Marines. “Iraq is not yet secure, and there will be difficult...

Obama Sways GOP on Iraq, Loses Dems
Obama Sways GOP on Iraq, Loses Dems

Obama Sways GOP on Iraq, Loses Dems

McCain backs plan; Pelosi thinks leaving 50K is too many

(Newser) - Key congressional Republicans, including John McCain, gave their backing to President Obama's plan to withdraw all combat forces from Iraq by August 2010. The New York Times reports that GOP members at a bipartisan White House meeting yesterday left more impressed than some Democratic counterparts, who thought Obama was leaving...

Ex-CIA Exec Gets 37 Months for Peddling Contracts

(Newser) - A former CIA official who steered contracts toward a friend in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison, the Washington Post reports. Kyle Foggo was, at the time, the CIA’s executive director, the agency’s third-highest position. In exchange for lavish dinners...

Two-Thirds of Americans Back Afghanistan Surge

Two-thirds of Americans support Afghanistan 'surge'

(Newser) - The 17,000 additional troops President Obama plans to send to Afghanistan will ship out with the support of two-thirds of Americans, a contrast to the public’s poor reception of George W. Bush’s Iraq surge, the Washington Post reports. Polls also show Obama’s troop increase has widespread...

Economic Woes Threaten Iraq's Stability

Declining oil prices and aid cancel urgently needed rebuilding

(Newser) - Countries around the world are suffering budget shortfalls and declining exports, but few nations have seen as calamitous a fall in revenues as Iraq. As oil prices have plummeted and American financial support has dried up, Iraq is canceling projects and struggling to pay government employees. As the New York ...

Human Rights in Russia 'Under Siege': US State Dept.

(Newser) - Human rights in Russia are "under siege," and the Chinese government is engaging in "serious human rights abuses," the US State Department says. The finger-pointing, in an annual report released today, comes just a week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited China and downplayed...

Looted Iraq Museum Partially Reopens

PM backs controversial move; much of building still shut

(Newser) - Iraq’s National Museum reopened yesterday for the first time since its 2003 looting made it a symbol of post-invasion bedlam, the New York Times reports. But with only eight of 26 rooms functional, its reopening symbolizes as much the long road ahead as it does Iraqi reconstruction thus far,...

Abu Ghraib Reopens With Hair Salon, Playground

Refurbished facility still inspiring controversy

(Newser) - It became synonymous with torture, first under Saddam Hussein and then under American rule, but now Abu Ghraib has a new name and world-class facilities, the Telegraph reports. Baghdad Central Prison opened yesterday with a gym, hair salon, modern medical and dental facilities, and a playground for inmates’ children. Currently...

Iraqi Kurds Fear a Resurgent Baghdad

Arab-Kurdish tensions intensify as country's safety improves

(Newser) - Now that violence between Sunni and Shia Arabs is declining across Iraq, tensions are mounting again between Arabs and Kurds, who want Barack Obama to step in to cool off conflicts, the Economist reports. Oil and land disputes, political losses and an empowered central government have weakened the Kurds, who...

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