Iraq – News Stories About Iraq - Page 94

Al-Sadr Preaches Peace — But Not
Toward U.S.

Apr 8, 2007 5:56 PM CDT

Al-Sadr Preaches Peace — But Not Toward U.S.

Urges Iraqis to unite against "occupiers"

(Newser) - Firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis Sunday to stop killing each other—and join together to rid their country of Americans. On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, he urged both Iraqi forces and insurgents to direct their fight against "the occupiers,"...

Islamic Scholars Need U.S.

Apr 6, 2007 4:27 PM CDT

Islamic Scholars Need U.S.

Freedom fosters faith and scholarship

(Newser) - The Iraq war may be unforgiveable, but America has given Islam a priceless gift: a haven for Muslim scholarship, says a professor at the University of Deleware. "Muslim scholars have always maintained that true happiness comes from the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge," writes M. A. Muqtedar Khan....

Insuring Against Political Risks

Apr 6, 2007 1:45 PM CDT

Insuring Against Political Risks

Coups, riots, civil wars: Companies buy huge policies covering political upheaval

(Newser) - Political-risk insurance has quietly become a billion-dollar industry, the Economist reports, as Western corporations doing business in the developing world crave protection against coups, embargoes and civil wars. The Berne Union, a syndicate of 30 of the field's biggest insurers, says members have $113 billion in outstanding policies in some...

Iraq Is Breaking the Army

Apr 6, 2007 8:47 AM CDT

Iraq Is Breaking the Army

Inadequate training, gear, hobbles troops

(Newser) - The U.S. Army is stretched so thin in Iraq and Afghanistan that it's sending ill-prepared and ill-equipped young people into harm’s way, Time reports. And the surge in troops is only deepening the crisis: Two of the five new brigades bound for the Middle East will skip vital...

Big Oil Shut Out
Of Iraq Deals

Apr 6, 2007 8:24 AM CDT

Big Oil Shut Out Of Iraq Deals

First new oil contracts go to China, India—even Vietnam and Indonesia

(Newser) - U.S. oil companies are far from first in line as Iraq doles out its initial oil contracts. China, India—even Vietnam and Indonesia—have the inside track instead, thanks to contracts and infrastructure dating back to the Saddam regime, and more positive Iraqi sentiment. "They have...

Officer Walls Sects Apart
in Baghdad

Apr 5, 2007 11:34 AM CDT

Officer Walls Sects Apart in Baghdad

Peace barriers defy official policy and stir controversy—but they're working

(Newser) - Lt. Col. Jeff Peterson is trying to pacify Baghdad one wall at a time, erecting concrete barriers around Sunni and Shiites neighborhoods in the sector of the city he controls. Each mini-community has its own market, mosque, and generator. It's a controversial strategy most often used during civil wars, the...

Was There
a Deal with Iran?

Apr 5, 2007 7:54 AM CDT

Was There a Deal with Iran?

Iranian prisoner in Iraq was freed before British sailors were

(Newser) - Officials deny that concessions were made to Iran for the release of the captured British sailors, but the Times speculates that there may have been a secret deal. An Iranian diplomat held in Iraq for eight weeks was freed the day before the British prisoners were. Also, American officials said...

British Sailors Come Home

Apr 5, 2007 7:43 AM CDT

British Sailors Come Home

(Newser) - The fifteen British sailors captured by Iran are back in the UK. As soon as the British Airways jet touched down as Heathrow, Blair traded his measured diplomatic tone for harsher words, warning the "elements of the Iranian regime" were still arming insurgents inside Iraq."

Support The Troops With
A War Tax

Apr 3, 2007 4:15 PM CDT

Support The Troops With A War Tax

Dems should insist on paying, not borrowing, for war

(Newser) - If the Democrats want to support the troops but call the question on the war, they should pass a "war tax," writes Richard Hall in the Detroit Free Press. They could adopt the supplemental appropriations, but attach an income tax surcharge to finance it. Would the president...

The Surge Is
Our Last Stand

Apr 3, 2007 3:37 PM CDT

The Surge Is Our Last Stand

By the beginning of the coming year, "the Army will begin to unravel"

(Newser) - "We are in a position of strategic peril," says a retired general who's just back from Bagdhad in a blunt, sobering piece in the L.A. Times. Barry McCaffrey, now at West Point, urges support of the surge and the new strategy to secure Baghdad without sugar coating...

The Letter That Launched a War

Apr 3, 2007 1:12 PM CDT

The Letter That Launched a War

The Post tracks the bogus document from an Italian journalist to the President's hands

(Newser) - How the so-called "Italian Letter"—the discredited document suggesting Saddam Hussein sought to buy uranium from Niger—made its way from the hands of an Italian journalist into the President's State of the Union speech is the subject of an irresistible piece of sleuthing by Peter Eisner in...

Bush Staying the Course on Veto

Apr 3, 2007 1:03 PM CDT

Bush Staying the Course on Veto

President refuses to compromise on Iraq funding

(Newser) - Bush is staying the course in the war with Congress, ripping into "Democrat leaders" in a press conference today, and repeating his vow to veto any bills with troop withdrawal deadlines that crossed his desk. Congress, he said, is more clearly interested in fighting political battles than real ones.

Cleric Opposes Rebaathification

Apr 3, 2007 8:17 AM CDT

Cleric Opposes Rebaathification

Sistani rejects law aimed at quelling Sunni insurgency

(Newser) - A bill allowing Saddam's party members back into power in Iraq has been rejected by that country's most powerful cleric. The law, aggressively pushed by the U.S., would allow former low-level Baathists--most of them Sunnis--to hold positions in government. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the powerful Shiite cleric, dismissed...

Baghdad Merchants
Beg to Differ
With McCain

Apr 3, 2007 7:45 AM CDT

Baghdad Merchants Beg to Differ With McCain

Say sunny security assessment is phony

(Newser) - Of course John McCain found Baghdad's central market perfectly safe during his weekend visit: He came with 100 soldiers in armored Humvees, backed by attack helicopters and sharpshooters. In a follow-up visit, Kirk Semple of the New York Times found merchants incredulous at the Congressional delegation's sunny description of the...

Thompson Joins Race for 2008

Apr 2, 2007 6:18 AM CDT

Thompson Joins Race for 2008

Claims he's the only real conservative in the GOP field

(Newser) - Former governor and Bush cabinet member Tommy Thompson announced for president yesterday, staking a claim to the territory to the right of the other GOP contenders. "I am the reliable conservative, my record shows that," said the one-time secretary of Health and Human Services and four-term governor...

How America
Is Betraying
The Iraqis Who Work For It

Apr 1, 2007 10:19 PM CDT

How America Is Betraying The Iraqis Who Work For It

(Newser) - George Packer traveled the world from Baghdad to Malmo to Damascus to talk to the Iraqis, mostly young, who have served the American military as interpreters, intelligence gathers and local experts. He finds a disillusioned group of once pro-American Iraqis betrayed by mistrust, bureaucratic indifference, and outright lack...

British Captives
Standoff Stiffens

Mar 30, 2007 7:17 AM CDT

British Captives Standoff Stiffens

Experts say there is no clear border between Iran and Iraqi waters

(Newser) - London and Tehran and ratcheted up the rhetoric over the 15 British soldiers being held captive in Iran yesterday, the LA Times reports: Britain got the UN Security Council to issue a statement of "grave concern," while Tehran released more video of sailors professing guilt and issued charts...

The Capitol Arms For
The War Over the War

Mar 29, 2007 10:57 AM CDT

The Capitol Arms For The War Over the War

(Newser) - With Congress and the president now officially at war over Iraq, all parties scrambled yesterday to gear up for the coming firefight. The President promised to veto the spending bill with troop withdrawal deadlines attached, seeming to relish the fight ahead. Tthe newly aggressive and unified Democrats, notes the New ...

Iraqis Flee on the "Highway From Hell"

Mar 29, 2007 9:49 AM CDT

Iraqis Flee on the "Highway From Hell"

With the border to Jordan closed, 1,000 Iraqis a day hazard an escape to Syria

(Newser) - Every day, more than a thousand Iraqis risk their lives on a nightmarish journey from Baghdad to crowded, chaotic border crossings into Syria. Ambushes, murders, roadside bombs and kidnappings are common hazards along the 340-mile road "Highway From Hell."

Saudi King Calls Iraq War Illegal

Mar 29, 2007 8:53 AM CDT

Saudi King Calls Iraq War Illegal

Latest evidence of breach with ally

(Newser) - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia fired a warning shot at the Bush administration yesterday, calling Iraq “an illegal foreign occupation” and urging Arab leaders to unite to prevent U.S. domination of the region. The Saudis "are telling the U.S. they need to listen to their...