Iraq

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Gates Boosts War Request to Nearly $190B

Training, equipment top priorities for troops in Iraq, Afghanistan

(Newser) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Congress today for an extra $42 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, driving the tab for the next fiscal year up to nearly $190 billion, Reuters reports. The extra money is primarily for training and specialized equipment for the wars such as new...

State Dept. Stonewalls Blackwater Investigation

House panel: Firm ordered not to disclose information without White House OK

(Newser) - Documents revealed yesterday show that the State Department ordered Blackwater USA, the private security firm accused of shooting Iraqi civilians last week, not to disclose information about its Iraq operations without White House approval. The State Department order has interfered with a congressional probe into Blackwater, angering the reps investigating...

Sunnis Launch Ramadan Murder Drive
Sunnis Launch Ramadan Murder Drive
Sep 26, 2007 4:11 AM CDT

Sunnis Launch Ramadan Murder Drive

Insurgents target police, Interior Ministry officials, tribal leaders for assassination

(Newser) - Sunni insurgents have launched an assassination campaign aimed at  Iraqi police and officials of the Interior Ministry to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, reports the New York Times. Eight police officers, including a police chief, have been killed and 30 injured. A provincial governor  survived a suicide bombing...

US Wrestles With Defining Iraq Deaths

Wartime statistics challenge military analysts, methods

(Newser) - For military analysts, a shooting victim in Iraq hasn’t necessarily fallen prey to sectarian violence. Instead, teams analyze each killing for signs it was ethnically motivated, compiling statistics the Bush administration has relied on to show progress in Iraq. Victims who were tortured, shot once in the head, or...

US Sniper Program 'Baits' Insurgents
US Sniper Program 'Baits' Insurgents
Sep 24, 2007 10:59 AM CDT

US Sniper Program 'Baits' Insurgents

Iraqis who pick up planted weapons shot immediately

(Newser) - A classified Pentagon program urges snipers in Iraq to “bait” potential militants by scattering weapons and ammunition and shooting anyone who picks them up, the Washington Post reports. The program, detailed in documents from the murder trial of three snipers accused of planting evidence on victims, raises issues because...

Anti-War T-Shirt Draws Flak
Anti-War T-Shirt Draws Flak
Sep 24, 2007 9:33 AM CDT

Anti-War T-Shirt Draws Flak

They want him to stop using fallen soldiers' names on shirts

(Newser) - An Arizona entrepreneur who prints the name of troops killed in Iraq on anti-war T-shirts is getting heat from soldiers' families who say he's disrespecting the dead. Dan Frazier's shirts have slogans such as "Bush Lied" and "They Died" superimposed over the names.  Five states have passed...

Pentagon Investigates $6B in Contracts

Soldiers, civilians charged with taking bribes in Iraq

(Newser) - The Pentagon is investigating widespread graft involving US war-zone contracts, with 29 soldiers and civilians charged so far, the New York Times reports. Most of the scrutiny focuses on a contracting office in Kuwait, where an Army major is charged with taking $10 million in bribes from companies seeking contracts...

Iran to West: Don't Even Think About It

Tehran says attackers will rue aggression "as they regret it in Iraq"

(Newser) - In a parade flanked by missiles and homegrown fighter jets, Iran unequivocally responded to the West's indirect threats of force against the Islamic nation's nuclear ambitions: "Our message to the enemies is: Do not do it," said the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. "They will regret it,...

Security Guards Will Be Charged
Security Guards Will Be Charged
Sep 23, 2007 8:54 AM CDT

Security Guards Will Be Charged

US gunmen could be charged within the week

(Newser) - Iraqi officials will file criminal charges against the employees of Blackwater, the private security firm involved in the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians last Sunday, CNN reports. How such charges would be levied and trials held remain to be seen, as the US government has claimed that the Iraqis have...

UN Gears for Bigger Role in Iraq
UN Gears for Bigger Role in Iraq
Sep 23, 2007 6:22 AM CDT

UN Gears for Bigger Role in Iraq

New Baghdad office to open

(Newser) - The United Nations plans to increase its presence in Iraq, but has serious concerns about the "unstable" security situation, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at a meeting in New York yesterday with Iraq's prime minister. The expanded UN mission would seek to stabilize Iraq by mediating sect rivalries, bolstering...

'08 Iraq Tab Will Soar to $200B
'08 Iraq Tab Will Soar to $200B
Sep 22, 2007 4:25 PM CDT

'08 Iraq Tab Will Soar to $200B

Bush to ask Congress for nearly $200B

(Newser) - After beating down talk of a troop draw down, President Bush will ask Congress next week for nearly $200 billion to fund the war next year—making 2008 the most expensive year yet. The administration had originally sought $147.5 billion, but now seeks an additional $47 billion to fund...

Troop Withdrawal Timetable Fails in Senate

Anti-war Dems have had a bad week

(Newser) - Antiwar Democrats continued their losing streak today as a Senate measure to set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq didn't get enough support to keep it alive. The vote on the amendment to a defense authorization bill, which would have mandated a drawdown to begin in 120...

Blackwater Prior Shootings Show Pattern, Iraqis Say

Accuse security firm of brutality, lawlessness

(Newser) - In the ongoing controversy over Blackwater USA's role in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times details several earlier incidents in which civilians were killed by the private security firm used to guard American diplomats. One of the men wounded Sunday, when 11 Iraqis were killed at a busy Baghdad intersection, reports...

US Reinstates Blackwater in Iraq
US Reinstates Blackwater in Iraq
Sep 21, 2007 1:08 PM CDT

US Reinstates Blackwater in Iraq

Despite government opposition, State Department returns company to streets

(Newser) - American convoys began emerging from the Green Zone again today, protected by Blackwater USA  guards, just four days after an Iraqi ban on the private security firm halted all such travel. Iraqis remain outraged over the deaths of 11 civilians in a Blackwater shooting incident Sunday, but a Maliki aide...

Blackwater Shooters Were Not Provoked, Iraq Says

Hired guards guilty in massacre: Baghdad

(Newser) - A man who failed to stop for a traffic policeman and a screaming woman with a baby in her arms were shot dead as they crossed a busy Baghdad intersection guarded by private US security guards, according to a harrowing Iraqi account of the incident Sunday that left eight civilians...

Arrested Iranian Trained Iraq Terrorists: US

Tehran's trade delegate also accused of smuggling weapons

(Newser) - The US military said today it arrested an Iranian who allegedly smuggled bombs for use against US and Iraqi forces, the Los Angeles Times reports. Aghawi Farhadi is also accused of training terrorists for Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Soldiers captured Farhadi in a pre-dawn raid in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah,...

Blackwater Played by Its Own Rules
Blackwater Played by Its Own Rules
Sep 20, 2007 9:54 AM CDT

Blackwater Played by Its Own Rules

State Dept exempted security firm from Iraqi and US military oversight

(Newser) - Blackwater, the private security firm involved in the shooting of 10 civilians in Baghdad Sunday, has operated outside US military regulations governing other security contractors in Iraq, the Washington Post reports. Deployed and protected by the State Department, they were exempted from oversight by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, and not...

US-Iraqi Panel to Probe Private Contractors

Private military contractors get second look following the Blackwater USA incident

(Newser) - In the wake of the shooting deaths of 10 Iraqi civilians at the hands of private security firm Blackwater last weekend, the US and Iraq are forming a joint panel to probe the war's private security contractors. Rather than conduct forensic field studies of the incident, officials say, the committee...

Gates Sketches the Military's Long Haul

Defense sec rules out permanent bases but prepares for decades

(Newser) - The Wall Street Journal meets with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whose vision for a postwar Iraq includes a long-term American military presence—but no permanent bases à la Germany or Korea. Gates also proposes the maintenance of air- and sea-based forces throughout the Persian Gulf. It's a vision similar to...

US Bars Travel for Officials After Iraqi Shootings

Iraqi officials blast killings by private security operation

(Newser) - Tensions are so high in the aftermath of the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis by a private American security operation that the US has barred civilian officials from road travel outside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone for their own safety. The Iraqis were killed when contractors with security outfit Blackwater opened...

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