BAGHDAD - Religious clerics are beginning to play an increasingly powerful role in Iraq. Many Iraqis now fear that they are endangering human rights and religious freedom in the once largely secular country. Clerics began to play a major role since the U.S.-led...

Ron vs. the Huckster It isn't apparent from the broadcast program, but people in the audience weren't actually booing Ron Paul when he was saying we should take our marching orders from the Constitution. In the middle of his remarks, Fox put up a video of Rudy's...

Introduction It has been six years since the horrid attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Throughout that time, George W. Bush has been president of the United States and, especially given the emphasis he has put on 9/11, it's fair to judge him on how well he's done on policies...

This is the month of the reports. The Government Accountability Office has already made its report on the war in Iraq; next comes a Marine general, and then the big kahuna, Gen. David Petraeus. All of the reports are predictable, and none of them will sway President...

[Note for Readers: This is the third in TomDispatch's "by the numbers" series, leading up to this week's White House "Progress Report" from the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. The first, in July, was "Iraq by...

Six years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the entity known as al-Qaeda remains largely a mystery: its intent, its ideology, its leadership, and its inner workings are all largely unknown to the American people. Experts study them and interpret the arcane meanings of...

Updated at 12:20 a.m. EDT, Sept. 11, 2007At least 77 Iraqis were killed and 132 Iraqis were wounded during the latest violence. Thirteen GIs were killed and at least 16 injured in separate incidents, including a pair of vehicular accidents. Also, the holy city of...

Updated at 11:35 p.m. EDT, Sept. 9, 2007At least 59 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 34 more were wounded during various incidents that included at least three suicide bombings. In Baghdad, an MND-B soldier was killed today; two other soldiers and an Iraqi...

So all of Washington (and maybe even a few of those out in the rest of the country) is waiting for Gen. David Petraeus to deliver his report on the "surge" and how things are going in Iraq. It is a curious phenomenon whose curiosity has been too little...

With US General David Petraeus's eagerly anticipated final report on Iraq due on Sep. 15, supporters of the troop surge are busily trying to set the stage for the report that they believe will refute their opponents. The media blitz in Washington is unfolding under...