World-News

"CNN will surely remind us today that it is Day 19 of the Israel-Hezbollah war - now branded as Crisis in the Middle East - but you won't catch anyone saying it's Day 1,229 of the war in Iraq. On the Big Three networks' evening newscasts, the time devoted to Iraq has fallen 60 percent between 2003 and this spring, as clocked by the television monitor, the Tyndall Report. The steady falloff in Iraq coverage isn't happenstance. It's a barometer of the scope of the tragedy," writes Frank Rich.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/073006D.shtml

Iraq's most influential Shiite leaders have rejected the use of US forces to stabilize Iraq's security situation, as the Pentagon announced an increase in troops numbers.

https://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060728/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_060728125047


From Information Clearing House

By ROBERT F. WORTH

He said he had witnessed a deliberate plot by his fellow soldiers to kill the three handcuffed Iraqis and a cover-up in which one soldier cut another to bolster their story. The squad leader threatened to kill anyone who talked. Later, one guilt-stricken soldier complained of nightmares and “couldn’t stop talking” about what happened, Sergeant Lemus said.

https://informationclearinghouse.info/article14245.htm

I have been visiting Baghdad in peace and in war since 1978 and I have never seen this city of 6 million people so paralyzed by fear. The streets are empty in the middle of the day because Sunni and Shiite Muslims are terrified of running into a checkpoint manned by members of the other community who may kill them after a glance at their identity cards.

https://tinyurl.com/zbmpy



They plundered Iraq for fun and profit

Mike Battles — former Republican candidate for Congress in Rhode Island and Fox News war-on-terror analyst — figured he could make a quick fortune off the rebuilding of Iraq. So he and pal Scott Custer set up a contracting firm with the catchy name of Custer Battles. The company proceeded to steal a cool $50 million from American taxpayers, according to two of its former employees.

https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003151758_froma26.html


From Information Clearing House

The families of four British soldiers killed in Iraq have won an important round in their legal battle to force the Government to hold an independent inquiry into the decision to go to war.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072706K.shtml

"At a minimum, the predicted Balkanization of Iraq points to nothing more or less than the comprehensive failure of the Bush administration to bring democracy to that nation," writes William Rivers Pitt.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072606J.shtml

Imperial Valley Press

07/25/06

President Bush said Tuesday a new plan to increase U.S. and Iraqi forces in the besieged capital of Baghdad will help quell rising violence that is threatening Iraq's transformation to a self-sustaining democracy. 'Obviously the violence in Baghdad is still terrible and therefore there needs to be more troops,' Bush said in a White House news conference with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki... [editor's note: "Obviously the fire is still burning and therefore there needs to be more gasoline poured on it" - TLK]

https://tinyurl.com/m4zjm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

A top Iraqi military officer yesterday drew a dark picture of the security situation in his war-torn country while on a visit to Washington and said the current US strategy lacked vision and had failed.

https://tinyurl.com/ocxgy


From Information Clearing House