Iraq

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Obama: Iraq War Ends by Aug. 31, 2010

(Newser) - President Obama didn’t mince his words in his address at Camp Lejeune, NC, today. “By Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end,” he declared, earning his first applause from the audience of Marines. “Iraq is not yet secure, and there will be difficult...

Obama Sways GOP on Iraq, Loses Dems
Obama Sways GOP on Iraq, Loses Dems
Feb 27, 2009 6:16 AM CST

Obama Sways GOP on Iraq, Loses Dems

McCain backs plan; Pelosi thinks leaving 50K is too many

(Newser) - Key congressional Republicans, including John McCain, gave their backing to President Obama's plan to withdraw all combat forces from Iraq by August 2010. The New York Times reports that GOP members at a bipartisan White House meeting yesterday left more impressed than some Democratic counterparts, who thought Obama was leaving...

Ex-CIA Exec Gets 37 Months for Peddling Contracts

(Newser) - A former CIA official who steered contracts toward a friend in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison, the Washington Post reports. Kyle Foggo was, at the time, the CIA’s executive director, the agency’s third-highest position. In exchange for lavish dinners...

Two-Thirds of Americans Back Afghanistan Surge

Two-thirds of Americans support Afghanistan 'surge'

(Newser) - The 17,000 additional troops President Obama plans to send to Afghanistan will ship out with the support of two-thirds of Americans, a contrast to the public’s poor reception of George W. Bush’s Iraq surge, the Washington Post reports. Polls also show Obama’s troop increase has widespread...

Economic Woes Threaten Iraq's Stability

Declining oil prices and aid cancel urgently needed rebuilding

(Newser) - Countries around the world are suffering budget shortfalls and declining exports, but few nations have seen as calamitous a fall in revenues as Iraq. As oil prices have plummeted and American financial support has dried up, Iraq is canceling projects and struggling to pay government employees. As the New York ...

Human Rights in Russia 'Under Siege': US State Dept.

(Newser) - Human rights in Russia are "under siege," and the Chinese government is engaging in "serious human rights abuses," the US State Department says. The finger-pointing, in an annual report released today, comes just a week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited China and downplayed...

Looted Iraq Museum Partially Reopens

PM backs controversial move; much of building still shut

(Newser) - Iraq’s National Museum reopened yesterday for the first time since its 2003 looting made it a symbol of post-invasion bedlam, the New York Times reports. But with only eight of 26 rooms functional, its reopening symbolizes as much the long road ahead as it does Iraqi reconstruction thus far,...

Abu Ghraib Reopens With Hair Salon, Playground

Refurbished facility still inspiring controversy

(Newser) - It became synonymous with torture, first under Saddam Hussein and then under American rule, but now Abu Ghraib has a new name and world-class facilities, the Telegraph reports. Baghdad Central Prison opened yesterday with a gym, hair salon, modern medical and dental facilities, and a playground for inmates’ children. Currently...

Iraqi Kurds Fear a Resurgent Baghdad

Arab-Kurdish tensions intensify as country's safety improves

(Newser) - Now that violence between Sunni and Shia Arabs is declining across Iraq, tensions are mounting again between Arabs and Kurds, who want Barack Obama to step in to cool off conflicts, the Economist reports. Oil and land disputes, political losses and an empowered central government have weakened the Kurds, who...

Shoe Thrower Says Bush's 'Icy Smile' Set Off Attack

(Newser) - No wonder he came so close: The Iraqi journalist who chucked his shoes at George Bush practiced two years in advance and even videotaped taped himself doing so, USA Today reports. However, Muntadhar al-Zeidi said he didn't know he'd go through with it until he saw Bush "smiling icily"...

Trial Postponed for Iraqi Shoe Hurler

Unrepentant journalist says chucking shoes at Bush was protest against US occupation

(Newser) - The trial of an Iraqi journalist who chucked his shoes at President Bush has been delayed until next month, reports the BBC. The court first needs to consult with the Iraqi government on whether Bush's visit to Iraq was formal or informal, according to the judge. Munthadar al-Zaidi is charged...

Inquiry Into Iraqi Graft Expands to Top US Officers

(Newser) - The United States' poor track record on rebuilding Iraq has long been chalked up to lousy planning by Pentagon brass. But an expanding investigation by federal authorities adds another element to the mix: possible corruption by the military commanders who oversaw reconstruction in the Wild West days after the invasion,...

Western Tourists Return to Iraq (With Armed Guards)

(Newser) - A group of tourists is heading to Iraq next month for a whirlwind tour of a dozen sites including Baghdad, Babylon, and Basra, the Daily Telegraph reports. It’s the first time Westerners have dared vacation in the country since 2003, and the Surrey-based Hinterland Travel organizing the tour isn’...

Blackwater Ditches Name, Attempts to Change Image

Firm renames itself Xe; will focus on training and logistics support

(Newser) - Private security firm Blackwater Worldwide is hoping to shed some of the controversy that has dogged it since its bloody tenure in Iraq by renaming itself Xe (pronounced “Zee”), the AP reports. Besides the name change, the firm has altered the focus of its business from contracting out...

Suicide Bomber Kills 35 in Iraq
 Suicide Bomber Kills 35 in Iraq 
Feb 13, 2009 9:15 AM CST

Suicide Bomber Kills 35 in Iraq

Women, children targeted en route Shia to holy city

(Newser) - A female suicide bomber killed at least 35 Iraqi pilgrims on the way to a religious festival today, reports CNN. Another 45 were wounded. The victims, mainly women and children, were in the town of Mussayib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims are currently...

DC Shrugs Off 'Miracle' in Iraq
 DC Shrugs Off 'Miracle' in Iraq 
OPINION
Feb 13, 2009 8:41 AM CST

DC Shrugs Off 'Miracle' in Iraq

Obama must support healthy Iraq, even if he opposed war

(Newser) - The US barely noticed the recent "small miracle" in the Middle East, writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post: Iraq's peaceful elections. The nation "moved away from religious sectarianism toward more secular nationalism”—good news for the US, bad for Iran. Even though our policies made it...

Congress Joins Tweet-Mania
 Congress Joins Tweet-Mania 
Feb 11, 2009 5:59 PM CST

Congress Joins Tweet-Mania

Reps send updates from Iraq, meetings with prez

(Newser) - Since a ban on social networking was lifted, lawmakers have been using Twitter to give the public unprecedented access to congressional meetings—and perhaps fight boredom during them. At least four Republican reps, among the 65 who Twitter regularly, sent one-liners during a meeting with President Obama on the stimulus...

Iraq PM Shrugs Off US as Sarko Cozies Up

In his first visit to Baghdad, French prez seeks oil, influence

(Newser) - French prez Nicolas Sarkozy, whose predecessor led international opposition to the Iraq war, paid a surprise visit to Baghdad yesterday in an attempt to raise his country's profile in the region. Sarkozy met with PM Nouri al-Maliki, who used a joint news conference to slap at recent US pressure to...

Iraqi Insurgent: We Won't Stop Til US Leaves
Iraqi Insurgent: We Won't Stop Til US Leaves
Interview
Feb 10, 2009 2:15 PM CST

Iraqi Insurgent: We Won't Stop Til US Leaves

Numbers dwindle, but 'I feel happy' when killing Americans

(Newser) - These are tough times for the Iraqi resistance. Violence is down, fighters are scarce, and the public has turned against them. Abu Abdul Aziz is one of just 35 fighters in the Front of Jihad and Change—a far cry from the 750 he fought alongside in 2005—but the...

Iraqi Women's Minister Resigns in Protest

Budget cuts rob her of resources to help 'army of widows'

(Newser) - Iraq's state minister for women's affairs has quit to protest a lack of resources for a daunting task—improving the lives of "a full army of widows" and other women left poor or abandoned by war. Nawal al-Samarraie told the AP how her office's budget was so tight that...

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