Month: May 2007

Updated at 9:51 p.m. EDT, May 10, 2007At least 62 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and 26 Iraqis were wounded in violent incidents. There is confusion over the number of civilian deaths attributable to Coalition forces in both Sadr City and Basra. Also, the U.S. military reported today that three American servicemembers were … Continue reading “Thursday: 3 GIs, 62 Iraqis Killed; 26 Wounded”

In the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon planned to create a “Rapid Reaction Media Team” (RRMT) designed to ensure control over major Iraqi media while providing an Iraqi “face” for its efforts, according to a “white paper” obtained by the independent National Security Archive (NSA) which released it Tuesday. The … Continue reading “Pentagon Moved to Fix Iraqi Media Before Invasion”

There are plenty of good reasons to be suspicious when the Empire announces something, be that the "mission accomplished" in Iraq or a revelation the FBI had stopped a terrorist plot. Over the past several years, the American public has been fed a diet of lies, which though barely edible provided the illusion of nourishment: … Continue reading “Jihad in New Jersey”

Dear Liz, I read with interest your recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post, which told us "The Truth About Syria." It’s always a treat when Bush Administration officials have the opportunity to reveal the objectives of their foreign policy in the mainstream press for all concerned Americans to see. First of all, my congratulations … Continue reading “Dear Liz: Here’s Some Truth for You”

Patrick Cockburn has been hailed by Sidney Blumenthal in Salon as “one of the most accurate and intrepid journalists in Iraq.” And that’s hardly praise enough, given what the man has done. The Middle Eastern correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, he’s been on the spot from the moment when, in February 2003, he … Continue reading “A Small War Guaranteed to Damage a Superpower”

Updated at 12:40 a.m. EDT, May 10, 2007As U.S. Vice President Cheney paid an unannounced visit to Iraq, an explosion just outside the Green Zone interrupted his meeting with government officials. Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported that one American soldier was killed during a small arms attack in Diyala province; four other soldiers were wounded … Continue reading “Wednesday: 1 GI, 86 Iraqis Killed; 153 Iraqis Wounded”

Increasingly isolated by his dogged opposition to a timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, President George W. Bush will travel to the site of a deadly tornado in Kansas Wednesday, in part to rebut charges that relief operations there were hampered by shortages of equipment that had been shipped to Iraq. In an … Continue reading “Deadly Tornado Brings
Iraq War Home”

Whenever a humanitarian crisis flares up somewhere in the world, advocates of so-called humanitarian intervention claim that the United States has an obligation to respond because it is the world’s most powerful country, both militarily and economically. The latest call to arms is to stop the violence in Darfur. But the U.S. military does not … Continue reading “Good Intentions and
Unintended Consequences”

There are rumblings in the GOP that, if they get much louder, threaten to split the Republican Party over the war issue – and I don’t think anything could be much louder (in a good way) than Victor Gold‘s colorful dissent from the pro-war neocon orthodoxy. As deputy press secretary to Barry Goldwater in the … Continue reading “The Rising Antiwar Tide”

Updated at 1:00 a.m. EDT, May 9, 2007At least 114 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and 127 more were wounded thanks to ongoing violence. The mass abduction of 30 people was also reported. A significant bombing took place in Kufa, while U.S. forces bombed a school in Mandali. Southeast of Baghdad, two GIs … Continue reading “Tuesday: 2 GIs, 114 Iraqis Killed, 127 Wounded, 30 Kidnapped”