01/26/12: The Ithaca Journal reports that Iraq will take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed in a US raid in Haditha seven years ago, a government spokesman said Thursday, after the lone US Marine convicted in the killings reached a deal to escape jail time. Residents in Haditha, a former Sunni insurgent stronghold of about 85,000 people along the Euphrates River valley some 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, have expressed outrage at the American military justice system for allowing Staff Sergeant Frank Wultrich to avoid prison.
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01/18/12: The Washington Post reports that violence appears to have increased sharply since US troops left Iraq a month ago, as insurgents have unleashed a wave of furious bombings targeting Baghdad neighborhoods, Shiite pilgrims and police facilities in Sunni areas. The deadly attacks have roots not only in the troops' departure but also in a domestic political crisis that erupted in its wake. Shiite and Sunni leaders have squared off in a power struggle, one that analysts say insurgents are trying to turn into a full-scale civil war. How the politicians handle their own mess will determine Iraq’s ability to hold itself together.
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01/17/12: Reuters reports that less than a month after the last US troops walked out of Iraq, American officials are admitting that left behind in Baghdad were a number of contractors held by the foreign government, some for as many as three weeks. The number of civilian contractors detained by Iraqi officials was in the “low hundreds,” and although all have been released, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of future imprisonments. America’s embassy in Baghdad houses around 15,000 US-affiliated persons, but now with the war officially over, Iraq is warning the US and others that they better play by their rules if they want to stay.
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01/10/12: JURIST reports that Blackwater, now known as Academi, reached a confidential settlement agreement Saturday with survivors and families of victims in a 2007 shooting incident in the Nisour Square area of Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. A subsequent FBI investigation revealed that 14 of the deaths were unjustified acts of excessive force. A federal judge ruled last year that the lawsuit could proceed in North Carolina state court, saying that nonresidents lack the right to sue in federal court for injuries sustained outside of the country but that federal courts are obligated to remand such cases to the state level.
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12/26/11: The Washington Post reports that the United Nations and the Iraqi government agreed to relocate several thousand Iranian exiles living in a camp in northeastern Iraq, potentially averting a showdown with its residents. The dissidents, who have not said whether they would agree to move, reported a rocket attack on the camp. The People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, one-time allies of Saddam Hussein in a common fight against Iran, said Katyusha rockets struck near housing units inside the camp on Sunday night, but did not report any casualties.
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12/17/11: The Bowling Green Daily News reports that one of two Iraqi refugees accused of supporting terrorism efforts in Iraq while living in Bowling Green pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to all charges against him. Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, entered a guilty plea to every count in a 23-count indictment that charged him with conspiracy to kill US nationals in Iraq, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against US nationals in Iraq, attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al-Qaida in Iraq, distributing information on the manufacture and use of improvised explosive devices and conspiracy to transfer, possess and export Stinger missiles.
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12/17/11: Politico reports that The US handed over to the Iraqi government on Friday a Lebanese man accused of killing American soldiers in Iraq, Ali Musa Daqduq. The move by President Barack Obama helps ease the US effort to withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year, but the decision to turn Daqduq immediately drew harsh criticism from lawmakers who want the alleged Hezbollah operative to stand trial before a military commission. A White House spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said President Barack Obama agreed that Daqduq should be tried by a military tribunal.
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12/12/11: The Washington Post reports that with the US troop withdrawal from Iraq in its final days, President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will meet at the White House Monday to discuss the next phase of the relationship between their countries. While Obama and al-Maliki have pledged to maintain strong ties, the contours of the partnership between Washington and Baghdad remain murky, especially with Iran eager to assert influence over neighboring Iraq. And serious questions remain about Iraq’s capacity to stabilize both its politics and security. Iraqi leaders have said they want US military training help for their security forces but have been unable to agree on what type of help they’d like or what protections they would be willing to give American trainers.
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12/06/11: CNN reports that Tariq Aziz, who served as Iraq's top diplomat under Saddam Hussein, will be executed next year, after US forces have pulled out of the country, an adviser to Iraq's prime minister told CNN on Monday. "It will definitely take place, and it will take place after the Americans leave Iraq," said the adviser, Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi, about Aziz, who served as foreign minister. A lawyer for Aziz said he was surprised. "I did not expect the government would be that stupid, by doing this they will drag this country to the edge of the abyss," said Badi Arif in a telephone interview.
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11/07/11: The Washington Times reports that a top Kuwaiti official has thrown doubt on American proposals to station at least 4,000 additional soldiers in the Gulf nation following the US military withdrawal from Iraq at the end of the year. Sheik Jaber Al Mubarek Al Sabah, who is also defense minister, was quoted Sunday as saying there is no plan to increase US troop levels in the country. It was not immediately clear whether this was Kuwait's final word to the Pentagon or a suggestion that nothing is yet resolved and negotiations are in progress.
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10/27/11: The New York Times reports that President Hamid Karzai has invited retired Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who led NATO troops in 2009 and 2010, to Afghanistan, and General McChrystal plans to make the visit in the next few weeks, according to Afghan and American officials. The general has not been in Afghanistan since he resigned his command in June 2010 after an embarrassing article in Rolling Stone magazine quoted members of his staff saying disparaging things about the Obama administration.
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10/24/11: The Washington Post reports that a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that the State department is spending just 12 percent of money allocated for its police training program on advising Iraqi police officials, with the “vast preponderance” of funds going toward the security, transportation and medical support of the 115 police advisers hired for the program. The department has requested $887 million to continue operating the program this fiscal year.
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Commentary: What will history say about Iraq?
12/12/11: The Christian Science Monitor features commentary by John Yemma. Words like Da Nang, Hue, and Hanoi Hilton still stir painful memories for many Americans and Vietnamese, especially those who were directly involved in the Vietnam War. But as time passes, perspectives shift. Surprising changes occur. Time does that – softens old animosities, consigns desperate conflicts to the pages of history. New generations arise with only a faint notion of the pain that ripped through their parents’ lives. The battlefields of Manassas, Virginia, and Waterloo, Belgium, are now beautiful lawns. For Americans and Iraqis, the departure of the last US military units from Iraq starts the slow fade from present tense to past.
December 12, 2011 at 01:21 PM in Military, Iraq, Commentary / Opinion | Permalink