World-News

"While the Washington press corps chased the nine wise men (and one wise woman) of the Iraq Study Group as they scampered from the White House to Capitol Hill to press conferences to a multitude of talk show appearances in their efforts to pull Dubya's chestnuts from the Iraq fire," writes William Fisher, "some journalists seem to have missed some of its most important findings. One of the more alarming was that, of the 1,000 employees of the massive new US Embassy inside the Green Zone bubble in Baghdad, there are - wait for it - SIX who are fluent in Arabic."

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121106A.shtml



The Time Is Now

Bob Herbert writes: "On Wednesday, as if the release of the Iraq Study Group report needed some form of dramatic punctuation, 11 more American GIs were killed in this misbegotten war that just about everyone, except perhaps the president, now sees as a complete and utter debacle."

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121106B.shtml

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Among the 1,000 people who work in the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, only 33 are Arabic speakers and only six speak the language fluently
https://www.lewrockwell.com/floyd/floyd45.html



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bob+Herbert

by Antonia Juhasz, TomPaine.com

The Iraq Study Group Report is right to flag Iraq's flawed reconstruction—but wrong in identifying the cause.

https://ga3.org/ct/qp20pgF1DRyC/



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

https://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5393/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

By THOM SHANKER

Frontline combat troops in the 15 brigades carrying out the American fight in Iraq — which the Iraq Study Group says could be largely withdrawn in just over a year — represent about 23 percent of the 140,000 military personnel committed to the overall war effort there.

https://tinyurl.com/sde4t



The Sunshine Boys Can’t Save Iraq

By Frank Rich

The report of the 10 Washington elders was rolled out like a heartwarming Hollywood holiday release. There was a feel-good title, “The Way Forward,” unfortunately chosen as well by Ford Motor to promote its last-ditch plan to stave off bankruptcy. There was a months-long buildup, with titillating sneak previews to whip up anticipation. There was the gala publicity tour on opening day, starting with a President Bush cameo timed for morning television and building to a “Sunshine Boys” curtain call by James Baker and Lee Hamilton on “Larry King Live.”

https://tinyurl.com/yx4bhn



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

Residents in Haditha, said electricity has been cut off and that no food is being allowed into the city.

https://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO861117.htm


From Information Clearing House



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Haditha

Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive footage that confirms children were among the victims of a US air raid northwest of Baghdad. Local officials said that the bodies of 17 civilians, including six children and eight women, had been pulled from the debris of two houses in al-Ishaqi.

https://tinyurl.com/ygkgr8

Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the US and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves."

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906Y.shtml



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Senator Gordon Smith, a moderate Republican from Oregon who has been a supporter of the war in Iraq, said the US military's "tactics have failed" and he "cannot support that anymore."

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906G.shtml



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP

Halliburton Corp., the oil field services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, breached the terms of its multibillion dollar contract to provide US soldiers logistical support in Iraq when one of its subcontractors outsourced security work to Blackwater USA, according to new documents released Friday by Congressman Henry Waxman.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906B.shtml



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Halliburton
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Waxman

In a bipartisan Congressional briefing hosted by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) and Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) the authors of the Lancet Study, which found that as many as 650,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the war, will present their full findings to Congress.

https://www.commondreams.org/news2006/1208-03.htm

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650,000 Iraqi Deaths Given Voice In U.S. Congress

Video

Congressional briefing on the Lancet Iraqi casualty study: Speaking were Gilbert Burnham, Les Roberts, and Juan Cole. The briefing was organized by Rep. Kucinich, with the support of Rep. Ron Paul.

https://tinyurl.com/y7jdtj



655,000 Excess Deaths In Iraq Since U.S. Invasion

Francesco Checchi, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, looks at the lambasting a new report on Iraq deaths has got from hostile governments. He has worked on mortality surveys in Angola, Darfur, Thailand and Uganda, and written a publication "Interpreting and using mortality data in humanitarian emergencies" for the Humanitarian Practice Network.

https://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/116066724942.htm



Full Report

A publication "Interpreting and using mortality data in humanitarian emergencies" [PDF]

https://tinyurl.com/v87fr


From Information Clearing House



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=650,000
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=655,000