The CIA is expected to maintain a large clandestine presence in Iraq and Afghanistan long after the departure of conventional U.S. troops as part of a plan by the Obama administration to rely on a combination of spies and Special Operations forces to protect U.S. interests in the two longtime war zones, U.S. officials said. - U.S. officials said that the CIA’s stations in Kabul and Baghdad will probably remain the agency’s largest overseas outposts for years, even if they shrink from record staffing levels set at the height of American efforts in those nations to fend off insurgencies and install "capable governments". The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in December has moved the CIA’s emphasis there toward more traditional espionage — monitoring developments in the increasingly antagonistic government, seeking to suppress al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country and countering the influence of Iran. In Afghanistan, the CIA is expected to have a more aggressively operational role. U.S. officials said the agency’s paramilitary capabilities are seen as tools for keeping the Taliban off balance, protecting the government in Kabul and preserving access to Afghan airstrips that enable armed CIA drones to hunt al-Qaeda remnants in Pakistan.

PressTV: CIA assassination drone raid kills 10 in NW Pakistan
John Glaser: US May Expand Role of Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan
AWIP: U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners

Hey, Iraq, don’t say we never gave you anything. In addition to hundreds of thousands dead and untold injured, the United States is leaving behind enough toxic waste sites to kill your rats. - “Open-air burn pits have operated widely at military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the Department of Veterans Affairs notes on its website. On hundreds of camps and bases across the two countries, the U.S. military and its contractors incinerated toxic waste, including unexploded ordnance, plastics and Styrofoam, asbestos, formaldehyde, arsenic, pesticides and neurotoxins, medical waste (even amputated limbs), heavy metals and what the military refers to as “radioactive commodities.” The burns have released mutagens and carcinogens, including uranium and other isotopes, volatile organic compounds, hexachlorobenzene, and, that old favorite, dioxin (aka Agent Orange).

In a string of attacks today, members of the digital activist group Anonymous apparently hacked into the Web site of defense lawyers for a U.S. Marine accused of leading a civilian massacre in Iraq, and have reportedly acquired e-mails exchanged by attorneys in the case. - They also reportedly: published the names, addresses and other information of more than 700 officers in Texas after compromising the Texas Police Association's Web site allegedly over a cop being investigated for child porn; attacked a Salt Lake City police Web site to protest an anti-graffiti bill; defaced a Boston police department site over alleged police brutality during Occupy Boston protests; and attacked the site of Greece's justice ministry over the country's bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The Web site of the law firm Puckett & Faraj, which represented Marine Sgt. Frank Wuterich in his recent court martial, was inaccessible this morning. Wuterich allegedly led a group of Marines in shooting 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2005. The original murder charges were reduced and ultimately dropped entirely as part of an agreement last week in which Wuterich pled guilty to one count of negligent dereliction of duty. He was demoted in rank to private and will have to forfeit some of his pay, but will serve no time.

Anonymous is on a rampage today. Just hours after leaking a confidential phone call between the FBI and Scotland yard, members have released a huge archive of emails and documents related to the 2005 Haditha Massacre, which left 24 Iraqi civilians dead.

Just a few minutes ago, Anonymous announced they had stolen 2.6 gigabytes of email belonging to the law firm Puckett Faraj. Neal Puckett represents Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who was accused of leading the group of Marines who killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in November, 2005—what later became known as the Haditha Massacre. Last month, Wuterich struck a plea deal where he'll be demoted from Staff Sergeant to Private, but will serve no prison time.

Anonymous promises the emails contain "detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records" about the Haditha case, and other cases Puckett Faraj handles.

Russia Today: Anonymous reveals Haditha massacre emails
Naomi Spencer: No prison time for Marine charged in Haditha massacre
Russia Today: Department of Homeland Security website hacked by Anonymous

State Dept. Drones Cover All of Iraq to 'Protect Embassy'. - Another irksome aspect of the lingering American presence beyond its military withdrawal, the US State Department has fielded a whole fleet of surveillance drones to fly over Iraq. They say the flights are meant to protect the city-sized US Embassy on the outskirts of Baghdad. For the Iraqi government, however, the unwelcome overflights amount to a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and they have a point. It is hard to imagine the US would give unfettered access to the whole of its airspace to any other nation’s surveillance drones, no matter how big its embassy was. The State Department’s Diplomatic Security branch hasn’t exactly been keeping the drones a secret, but it hasn’t broadcast them very loudly either. Their mention is a single paragraph buried near the back of its recent annual report.

After agreeing to a plea bargain on Monday, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich expected a sentence of 90 days in jail for slaughtering civilians during a 2005 massacre in Iraq. On Tuesday that term was nixed, and now the confessed killer will only be demoted. - A spokesman for the US Marine Corps base near San Diego, California told the media on Monday that "By pleading guilty to this charge, Staff Sergeant Wuterich has accepted responsibility for his actions.” Those actions — a starring role in a brutal massacre that left 24 people dead in Haditha, Iraq back in 2005 — led to eight Marines being faced with a multitude of charges over the last six-plus years. Wuterich was the last of the eight men to be brought to trial, but on Monday he accepted a plea bargain in lieu of continuing with his trial that involved, among other charges, nine counts of manslaughter against him. The terms of the plea bargain, as reported Monday, were believed to include three months of containment in a military prison, the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a rank demotion. On Tuesday, however, the harshest penalty for the staff sergeant was revoked and now Wuterich will see no jail time for his role in the murders.

Staff Sergeant Faces Pay Cut Over Butchering of Civilians. - In the mother of all plea bargains, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who was charged with leading the US Marines’ massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha, plead guilty to a single count of “dereliction of duty.” His “sentence,” such as it is, will amount to a demotion to the rank of private and a pay cut related to his loss of rank. He will serve no jail time. The announcement has angered a number of Iraqis, particularly the relatives of the slain, who say the verdict is an insult. Khalid Salman, a lawyer for the relatives of the victims, and a cousin of one of the slain, condemned the decision. “This is not a traffic felony,” he said. Even skeptical Iraqis weren’t prepared for this total dismissal. Saleem al-Jubouri, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s human rights committee, had already issued a condemnation on the assumption that Wuterich would face a three-month jail sentence, the maximum for the soldier’s plea bargain.

AWIP: Marine gets three months in jail for massacring two dozen civilians

The top United Nations human rights official criticized Iraq on Tuesday for carrying out a large number of executions, including 34 on a single day last week, and voiced concern about due process and the fairness of trials. - "Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, in a statement referring to executions carried out on January 19. "Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure," she added. At least 63 people are believed to have been executed since mid-November in Iraq, where the death penalty can be imposed for some 48 crimes including a number related to non-fatal crimes such as damage to public property, Pillay said. "Most disturbingly, we do not have a single report of anyone on death row being pardoned, despite the fact there are well documented cases of confessions being extracted under duress," she said.

AWIP: US rights group says Iraq becoming 'police state'

More than six years after Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich led a squad of Marines into two Haditha, Iraq homes and massacred two dozen civilians, the American serviceman in charge has reached a plea deal. For nine counts of manslaughter, Wuterich will get three months of confinement.

Wuterich is the last of eight men tied to the November 2005 killing that left 24 Iraqis dead, including women, children and the elderly. It was announced on Monday this week that he had reached a plea with prosecutors during his military tribunal and is now expected to be sentenced as early as Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, Wuterich will face a maximum of three months of confinement, the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a rank demotion. Of the other seven Marines charged with the now-notorious massacre, one was acquitted and six had their charges dismissed. Wuterich’s attorneys have been confident throughout the ordeal that he would see a similar outcome. "He's going to be glad to have it over because he knows that he'll be exonerated," lawyer Neal Puckett told National Public Radio earlier this month. On November 19, 2005, Wuterich led a squad of men into two separate homes in the town of Haditha and opened fire on everyone in sight. Prosecutors say that a roadside bomb exploded moments before the Marines stormed the home, and were brought into hysterics by seeing a fellow soldier die in the attack. In response, they went on a rampage and for 45 minutes raided the two homes and were never faced with gunfire. Wuterich later said he instructed his team to “shoot first and ask questions later.”

The WE!: Haditha massacre
The WE!: An Illegal War Degenerates - "So I grabbed her little sister and pulled her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. Then I hid behind the TV, and I locked and loaded my M-16, and I blew those little fuckers to eternity."

An international human rights group says Iraq's Shiite-led government has cracked down harshly on dissent during the past year of Arab Spring uprisings, turning the country into a "budding police state" as autocratic regimes crumbled elsewhere in the region. - Human Rights Watch says in its World Report 2012, which covers 2011, that Iraq is slipping back into authoritarianism as security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, torture detainees and intimidate activists. The New York-based group says that the U.S. failed to leave behind a stable democracy in Iraq when American soldiers exited nine years after toppling the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein.

AWIP: Iraq's Maliki accused of detaining hundreds of political opponents

Allawi's allegations were the second major broadside this week against detention practices under Maliki, who's been the prime minister since May 2006. London's Guardian newspaper reported Monday on an extortion racket involving Iraqi state security officials who systematically arrest people on trumped-up charges, torture them and then extort bribes from their families for their release. The wave of arrests of Maliki political opponents began in October, around the time it was becoming clear that talks on a continued U.S. presence in Iraq would fail.

The Pentagon has quietly shifted combat troops and warships to the Middle East after the top American commander in the region warned that he needed additional forces to deal with Iran and other potential threats, U.S. officials said.

Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who heads U.S. Central Command, won White House approval for the deployments late last year after talks with the government in Baghdad broke down over keeping U.S. troops in Iraq, but the extent of the Pentagon moves is only now becoming clear. Officials said the deployments are not meant to suggest a buildup to war, but rather are intended as a quick-reaction and contingency force in case a military crisis erupts in the standoff with Tehran over its suspected nuclear weapons program. The Pentagon has stationed nearly 15,000 troops in Kuwait, adding to a small contingent already there. The new units include two Army infantry brigades and a helicopter unit - a substantial increase in combat power after nearly a decade in which Kuwait chiefly served as a staging area for supplies and personnel heading to Iraq. The Pentagon also has decided to keep two aircraft carriers and their strike groups in the region. Earlier this week, the American carrier Carl Vinson joined the carrier Stennis in the Arabian Sea, giving commanders major naval and air assets in case Iran carries out its recent threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint in the Persian Gulf, where one-fifth of the world's oil shipments passes.

The end of the US military occupation does not mean Iraqis have full control of their oil. - While the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain. On November 27, 38 months after Royal Dutch Shell announced its pursuit of a massive gas deal in southern Iraq, the oil giant had its contract signed for a $17bn flared gas deal. Three days later, the US-based energy firm Emerson submitted a bid for a contract to operate at Iraq's giant Zubair oil field, which reportedly holds some eight million barrels of oil.

After a disappointing fifth place finish in the Iowa Caucuses, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is looking to build some momentum to salvage his campaign and, as is so often the case with candidates, is looking to do so with hawkish policy statements. - But while other candidates have focused on starting new wars, usually in Iran, Gov. Perry promised to re-start an old war, saying that not only did he believe withdrawing from Iraq was a “huge error” but that if elected he would reinvade. Predicting that Iran would enter Iran “literally at the speed of light,” Perry insisted it was vital to send troops back into the country, though at such a speed Iran would be able to travel from its own border to the Jordanian border on the other side of Iraq within 1.6 microseconds, so the opportunity to response would be extremely limited. Perry’s strategist sought to redefine the governor’s comments, saying that sending massive amounts of troops back into Iraq is “not an invasion, that’s common sense.” It isn’t clear however what makes it “not an invasion.”

Fallujah, Iraq - While the US military has formally withdrawn from Iraq, doctors and residents of Fallujah are blaming weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorous used during two devastating US attacks on Fallujah in 2004 for what are being described as "catastrophic" levels of birth defects and abnormalities. - Dr Samira Alani, a paediatric specialist at Fallujah General Hospital, has taken a personal interest in investigating an explosion of congenital abnormalities that have mushroomed in the wake of the US sieges since 2005. "We have all kinds of defects now, ranging from congenital heart disease to severe physical abnormalities, both in numbers you cannot imagine," Alani told Al Jazeera at her office in the hospital, while showing countless photos of shocking birth defects. As of December 21, Alani, who has worked at the hospital since 1997, told Al Jazeera she had personally logged 677 cases of birth defects since October 2009. Just eight days later when Al Jazeera visited the city on December 29, that number had already risen to 699. "There are not even medical terms to describe some of these conditions because we've never seen them until now," she said. "So when I describe it all I can do is describe the physical defects, but I'm unable to provide a medical term."

AWIP: Huge Rise in Birth Defects in Falluja
Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'
Gerry Georgatos: Victims of war - Iraqi children and families - Depleted uranium and trauma

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich

After years of appeals and delays, the last US Marine charged over the 2005 killings of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha faces a court martial on Thursday in California.

United States troops may have left Iraq, but there is still unfinished business in the legal arena with one of the most controversial criminal cases involving the US military during the nearly nine-year-long Iraq war. Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, faces nine counts of voluntary manslaughter and other charges for his role in the November 19, 2005 deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians, many of them women and children.

Shenzhen: Meet Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL who kills 255
Daily Mail: Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in US history
New York Post: Meet the big shot: SEAL is America’s deadliest sniper

Bill Van Auken: Military trial begins for Marine charged in Iraq massacre - The charges stem from the November 19, 2005 killings carried out by a squad of Marines in the city of Haditha in Iraq’s western Anbar Province. The killings took place after the convoy in which the Marines were riding was struck by a roadside bomb, leaving one Marine dead and two wounded. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, Wuterich, according to a Marine investigation, ordered four teenagers and the driver of a passing taxi cab out of the vehicle and shot them dead. According to another Marine, Sergeant Sanick De la Cruz, who participated in the shooting and testified in exchange for immunity, the five were killed as they attempted to surrender. Wuterich has claimed he shot them as they sought to flee, something allowed under the US military occupation’s rules of engagement. De la Cruz admitted to shooting at the five victims after they were dead and then urinating on their bodies. In what turned into a three-hour killing spree, Wuterich, the squad leader, led his men in a room-to-room sweep of three houses, throwing grenades and firing assault rifles. They killed 19 more civilians, including 10 women and children, one of them just three years old, as well as a 76-year-old man confined to a wheelchair.

Google/AFP: Last defendant in Iraq war case to stand trial
The Guardian: US marine to stand trial over 2005 killings that left 24 Iraqis dead

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq has expressed approval of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s quest to detain Iraq’s vice president on terrorism charges, despite almost everyone else recognizing it as part of a troubling pattern of consolidating dictatorial power. - “There is a serious effort by the Iraqi judiciary to have a free and fair and just investigation,” Ambassador James Jeffrey said. “It seems a lot of care is being taken at this point to maintain judicial independence and to have a very broad investigation.” Maliki, a Shiite, ordered the arrest of his Sunni Vice President Hashemi just as the last U.S. troops left Iraq. Many saw the move in the context of a broader pattern by Maliki of corruption, illegally crowding out Sunni authorities in Iraq’s government, and consolidating undue power for himself. In fact, nearly everybody agrees this is the case except for Maliki, his political allies, and the United States.

“I’m really excited about a lot of his ideas,” Cpl. Thorsen told CNN pundit Dana Bash from Paul headquarters in Ankeny, Iowa Wednesday night. “Especially when it comes to bringing the soldiers home,” added Thorsen. “I’ve been serving for ten years now and all ten of those have been during wartime. I’d like to see a little peacetime army and I think he has the right idea.”

Almost immediately, CNN’s Bash began berating the veteran and questioning him over his support for a candidate that would want to largely discontinue America’s foreign military presence. Bash pointed the camera towards a large tattoo on the solder’s neck that recognizes the September 11 terrorist attack and asks Thorsen how he could consider a candidate like Paul while other Republicans write him off as a security threat.

“Some Republicans out there have been saying that Ron Paul would be very dangerous for this country because he wants to bring troops like you back from your post from all over the world,” said Bash. “I think it would be even more dangerous to start nitpicking wars with more countries,” responded the vet.

At that point, CNN’s broadcast became scrambled, but Thorsen managed to begin, “Someone like Iran.” The soldier managed to squeeze off the word “Israel” before the broadcast ceased and the network returned to Blitzer live from in-studio.

CNN’s latest attempt at censoring Rep. Ron Paul’s message from the masses comes days after the network broadcast an edited interview of the candidate in which he is portrayed as agitated and irritated by a CNN host grilling him over controversial newsletters penned under the congressman’s name from the 1990s. After the broadcast, an unedited version of the interview circulated to the Web and showed that the station had largely doctored the original piece.

"Most people don't understand what they have been part of here," said Command Sgt. Major Ron Kelley as he and other American troops prepared to leave Iraq in mid-December. "We have done a great thing as a nation. We freed a people and gave their country back to them."

"It is pretty exciting," said another young American soldier in Iraq. "We are going down in the history books, you might say." (Washington Post, December 18, 2011)

Ah yes, the history books, the multi-volume leather-bound set of "The Greatest Destructions of One Country by Another." The newest volume can relate, with numerous graphic photos, how the modern, educated, advanced nation of Iraq was reduced to a quasi failed state; how the Americans, beginning in 1991, bombed for 12 years, with one dubious excuse or another; then invaded, then occupied, overthrew the government, tortured without inhibition, killed wantonly, ... how the people of that unhappy land lost everything — their homes, their schools, their electricity, their clean water, their environment, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their state-run enterprises, their physical health, their mental health, their health care, their welfare state, their women's rights, their religious tolerance, their safety, their security, their children, their parents, their past, their present, their future, their lives ... More than half the population either dead, wounded, traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, or in foreign exile ... The air, soil, water, blood, and genes drenched with depleted uranium ... the most awful birth defects ... unexploded cluster bombs lying anywhere in wait for children to pick them up ... a river of blood running alongside the Euphrates and Tigris ... through a country that may never be put back together again. [The story in pictures:]

Evils of the U.S. Iraqi Invasion
Iraq babies born deformed depleted uranium
Casualty figues — Injury and Death
Body count in Iraq
WELCOME TO WAR

Robert Parry: America’s Debt to Bradley Manning - MUST SEE VIDEO
New York Post: Meet the big shot - SEAL is America’s deadliest sniper
ANSWER: 'A great national tragedy for Iraqis' - VIDEO

There is a legacy for the Iraqi people, a legacy left to them by the “Coalition of the Willing”, a legacy that will be handed down from generation to generation. It is a legacy that has stolen their future and shattered the dreams of generations yet to come. Depleted Uranium (DU) type weaponry, was widely used in Iraq with devastating effects. There are over 350 sites in Iraq contaminated with DU, though the explosions have long since gone silent, the after effects of the contamination will linger for generations. Birth deformities have increased more than ten fold in some areas, cancers are in epidemic proportions. The figure for 2007 was 140,000 cases of cancer and 7,000 to 8,000 new cases reported each year. On viewing photographs of some of the deformities in these children it is hard to believe that the perpetrators are still walking free. What was the cause that was worth this sort of hell on earth for so many. Mid-wives in Iraq are purported to have said they no longer look forward to births as.... "We don't know what's going to come out." Is this “liberation” Western style?

Photo: The US embassy in Baghdad is gigantic for all Iraqi's, for the entire world to see. A 100-acre compound - ten times the size of the typical U.S. embassy, the size of 80 football fields, six times larger than the UN, the size of Vatican City. The U.S. Embassy Compound, in the middle of Baghdad - the centre for U.S. domination of the Middle East and its resources. (shunpiking)

Following up on previous reports last month about plans for the US to keep a number of trainers in Iraq beyond the deadline for withdrawal, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced today in a press conference that 700 troops will remain.

Maliki insisted that the troops’ duties would be strictly training and that they would only be operating inside military barracks. His comments did not directly address the US demands for immunity for the troops, but presumably they are being given some sort of immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed inside Iraq. Maliki also reported that the number of troops at the US Embassy would “not exceed 2,000,” giving the first clear view of exactly what sort of number of boots on the ground will remain after the end of the month. In addition to the 700 trainers and the “not exceeding 2,000″ embassy troops, the US will also have 1,500 diplomats with diplomatic immunity, as well as 15,000 other employees, which presumably includes the “private army” the State Department is planning to create.

[Source] A day after visiting Iraq, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to reporters in Turkey on Saturday and said this, according to the DoD’s own site:

"There is no question that the United States was divided going into that war," he said. "But I think the United States is united coming out of that war. We all recognize the tremendous price that has been paid in lives, in blood. And yet I think we also recognize that those lives were not lost in vain..."As difficult as [the Iraq war] was," and the cost in both American and Iraqi lives, "I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world," he added.

Panetta’s statement is highly reminiscent of the 1996 2001 incident in which Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes about the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq: "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it." They’re similar not just because the words are virtually identical, though they are, but also because they spring from the same rotted imperial mentality.

Baghdad (CNN) -- An Iraqi investigative committee issued an arrest warrant Monday for Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who is accused of orchestrating bombing attacks. - The committee of five judges issued the warrant under Article 4 of the country's anti-terrorism law. The Interior Ministry, at a news conference, showed what it called confession videos from people identified as security guards for al-Hashimi, the country's Sunni vice president. In the videos, the men described various occasions in which they purportedly carried out attacks under direct orders from al-Hashimi. One man said he carried out assassination attempts using roadside bombs and guns with silencers. He said the orders came from the vice president and at times through the director of his office. CNN could not immediately confirm that the men in the videos were bodyguards for al-Hashimi. Three of the vice president's security guards were detained earlier this month.

CBS News: Arrest warrant for Iraq V.P. on terror charge

Transcripts of military interviews from the investigation into the Haditha massacre were found [in/at a] trailer in a junkyard in Baghdad, which specializes in selling trailers and office supplies left over from American military base closings. - The 400 pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed to have been destroyed as the last American troops prepare to leave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter for The New York Times at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp. The documents — many marked secret — form part of the military’s internal investigation, and confirm much of what happened at Haditha, a Euphrates River town where Marines killed 24 Iraqis, including a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair, women and children, some just toddlers. Haditha became a defining moment of the war, helping cement an enduring Iraqi distrust of the United States and a resentment that not one Marine has been convicted.

BAGHDAD — The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday even as violence continues to plague the country and the Muslim world remains distrustful of American power. In a fortified concrete courtyard at the airport in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta thanked the more than one million American service members who have served in Iraq for “the remarkable progress” made over the past nine years but acknowledged the severe challenges that face the struggling democracy. [PUKE READ:] “Let me be clear: Iraq will be tested in the days ahead — by terrorism, and by those who would seek to divide, by economic and social issues, by the demands of democracy itself,” Mr. Panetta said. “Challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges to build a stronger and more prosperous nation.” As of last Friday, the war in Iraq had claimed 4,487 American lives, with another 32,226 Americans wounded in action, according to Pentagon statistics.

The WE!: Alive or dead? [Photos + text]
The WE!: WELCOME TO WAR [Photos + text]
The WE!: U.S. Debt Iraq Afghanistan Wars 2006 - 2007

Bill Van Auken: Obama at Fort Bragg: A hypocritical embrace of a criminal war - President Barack Obama used his speech to US troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina Wednesday to embrace the nine-year war in Iraq that he had ostensibly opposed and to declare the destruction of the country a “success.” The speech appeared to have been written by someone who threw out Abraham Lincoln’s famous adage and adopted the view that you can “fool all of the people all of the time.”

Despite US efforts to impose an information blackout on its war casualties, the number of US troops killed and wounded in Iraq has surpassed 50,000, a senior Iranian commander says. - “Based on the existing figures and data, the American forces killed and injured in Iraq are estimated to be 50,000. However, it seems that the real statistics are much higher than this,” said Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, the deputy head of Iran's Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Friday. “Of course the figure 50,000 killed and wounded Americans, is notwithstanding the mercenaries of other nationalities who are in the US Army fighting against the people of Iraq,” the Iranian commander added. Jazayeri made reference to the enormous cost of maintaining US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and argued that the American taxpayers are rarely aware of the undeniable fact that the cost of the Iraq war is at least USD 1,000 billion.

Reports say the US has dumped the remains of nearly 300 American troops killed in action overseas in a landfill in the state of Virginia. - According to the Washington Post, report on Wednesday, the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan had been sent to the King George county landfill in Virginia. The US Air Force is reported to have dumped the cremated partial remains in the landfill between 2004 and 2008. The report was based on database information at the Dover Air Base mortuary, where the remains of most war fatalities return. The actual number is considered to be far more than what the military admitted to, before reportedly halting the practice in 2008. The US military concealed the corpses' dumping from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner. Officials say there are no plans to alert the families of the deceased soldiers.

Washington Post: Remains of hundreds of troops left in landfill

The United States has used tactical nuclear weapons in its military campaign against Iraq and Afghanistan, a Middle East expert tells Press TV. - “Tactical nuclear weapons were used, at least one in Iraq and several were used in Afghanistan --in the Tora Bora mountains,” Peter Eyre, a Middle East consultant, said. Eyre pointed out that the atomic bomb dropped on Afghanistan's Tora Bora region was so powerful that it actually created an earthquake there. The analyst went on to say that the use of such lethal weapons by US military, which is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention, has been sanctioned by the US presidents; thus they should be prosecuted for war crimes. "In America, the ultimate commander in chief is the president," Eyre said, adding that the President has the final say in using such weapons. The US is the first country in the world to develop nuclear weapons and the only one to use them.

According to Bradley Manning’s lawyer David E. Coombs, the US government is deliberately withholding evidence that the defense has requested during discovery, including evidence that could be favorable to Manning’s case. - According to Coombs, this includes internal government reports which contradict one another about the leaks and reports which were never released but publicly downplayed the “damage” done by the leaks Manning is accused of. The later could be used to prevent the government’s witnesses from claiming the damage was broader than the official reports indicate.

A US marine walks past two bodies lying along a
street in the Fallujah. (Photo: AFP/Patrick Baz)

It has been seven years since the 2nd siege of Fallujah -- the American assault that left the city in ruins, killed thousands of civilians, and displaced hundreds-of-thousands more -- the assault that poisoned a generation, plaguing the people who live there with cancers and their children with birth defects. It has been seven years and the lies that justified the assault still perpetuate false beliefs about what we did.

The American veterans who fought there still do not understand who they fought against, or what they were fighting for.

I know, because I am one of those American veterans. In the eyes of many of the people I "served" with, the people of Fallujah remain dehumanized and their resistance fighters are still believed to be terrorists. But unlike most of my counterparts, I understand that I was the aggressor, and that the resistance fighters in Fallujah were defending their city.

It is also the seventh anniversary of the deaths of two close friends of mine, Travis Desiato and Bradly Faircloth, who were killed in the siege. Their deaths were not heroic or glorious. Their deaths were tragic, but not unjust.

How can I begrudge the resistance in Fallujah for killing my friends, when I know that I would have done the same thing if I were in their place? How can I blame them when we were the aggressors?

The WE!: WELCOME TO WAR
Gerry Georgatos: Victims of war - Iraqi children and families - Depleted uranium and trauma

A War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia has found former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of war crimes for their roles in the Iraq war, Press TV reports. - The five-panel Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against humanity by leading the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday. In 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction allegedly stockpiled by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The Malaysian tribunal judges ruled that the decision to wage war against Iraq by the two former heads of government was a flagrant abuse of law and an act of aggression that led to large-scale massacres of the Iraqi people. Bombings and other forms of violence became commonplace in Iraq shortly after the US-led invasion of the country. In their ruling, the tribunal judges also stated that the US, under the leadership of Bush, fabricated documents to make it appear that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Breaking The Silence - Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (HQ Copy) by John Pilger - John Pilger dissects the truth and lies in the 'war on terror'. Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC. In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban". In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination. Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks: "Is this Bush's Vietnam?"

The US' reconstruction project in Iraq could be described as a giant money pit. Tens of billions of US dollars have been invested in rebuilding the country and from what experts say, with loose accountability. - This week about 7 billion dollars that was once feared lost was supposedly found in Iraq's Central Bank. Iraq and the US pointed fingers at each other. Wayne Madsen who has been following the Coalition Provisional Authority and its role in Iraq development says even though an amount of money may have been found--it's paltry by comparison. The massive amount of taxpayer dollars spent in Iraq indicates money was stolen, misappropriated, or simply lost. The reconstruction of Iraq was the largest nation-building program in US history. The cost to the US taxpayer is more than $63 billion and counting. Even after troops leave, the US will be paying excessive amounts to shape the country for a geopolitical advantage. The details on how much money may have been gone missing may never REALLY be known. Some of the records have been sealed for decades.

AWIP: Billions Lost in Secret Federal Reserve Funding of Iraq War

Tens of billions were shipped to Iraq since the 2003 invasion, most of it lost or stolen. And we're not allowed to know about it. - Since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, the New York Federal Reserve has been shipping tens of billions of dollars to the government and central bank of Iraq, ostensibly for reconstruction and resumption of governmental services after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Between 2003 and 2008, over $40 billion in cash was secretly shipped in trucks from the New York Federal Reserve compound in East Rutherford, New Jersey to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, where they were then flown by military aircraft to Baghdad International Airport. In just the first two years, the shipments of dollar bills weighed a total of 363 tons. But much of that money was stolen, misappropriated, and simply lost.

RSN/LA Times: Missing Iraq Money May Have Been Stolen

Wesley Clark is a retired four-star general of the United States Army. Clark was valedictorian of his class at West Point, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he earned a master's degree in economics, and later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master's degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the Army and the Department of Defense, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Retired four-star general and former Democratic Presidential candidate Wesley Clark criticizes the course of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of September 11, 2001.

Obama announces the full withdrawal of troops from Iraq but fails to persuade Nouri al-Maliki to allow US to keep bases there. - The US suffered a major diplomatic and military rebuff on Friday when Iraq finally rejected its pleas to maintain bases in the country beyond this year. Barack Obama announced at a White House press conference that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of December, a decision forced by the final collapse of lengthy talks between the US and the Iraqi government on the issue. The Iraqi decision is a boost to Iran, which has close ties with many members of the Iraqi government and which had been battling against the establishment of permanent American bases.

Chicago Sun-Times: Obama: All U.S. troops out of Iraq by Dec. 31. The war will finally be over

Jason Ditz: Panetta: Military to Negotiate New Iraq Role After Pullout - Suggests US May Keep Troops As Part of 'Security Cooperation' Deal. According to Panetta, once the “reduction of the combat presence” is completed (an interesting choice of words since officials term the troops “non-combat” forces) they will enter into a new round of talks with the Iraqi government on keeping troops for military trainers and “security needs” going forward.

Iraqi militants fired rockets at US forces in Iraq’s Maysan Province Wednesday, wounding three. No other details were provided but the US was quick to issue a response. As always, everything is Iran’s fault. - The quick and easy blame from US officials claimed that the unnamed militant faction, which they assured us was Shi’ite, had received both funding and training from Iran’s Quds Force, conveniently enough the same Quds Force they are blaming for the assassination “plot” in Washington DC. Officials, including Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, insisted the attack was part of a broad plot designed to “achieve their greater aims,” which are to keep Iraq isolated. Three more wounded, however seems unlikely to achieve anything of the sort.

Chinese national oil companies are now the biggest beneficiary of Iraq's oil resources, beating the oil majors, according to analysts.

"Chinese companies backed up by the Chinese government enjoy serious advantages over the international oil companies (IOC) and also have better bargaining power," according to Gal Luft, the executive editor at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. "One should not forget that those companies are less risk-averse and therefore can take on projects that the IOCs wouldn't want to touch."

Adds Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel: "China has the money and is clearly a rising power. It can offer political help, technological help in some cases, military aid -- which none of the majors can."

"Vacuum Is Feared as U.S. Quits Iraq, but Iran’s Deep Influence May Not Fill It":

"One aim of the American invasion here was to establish a moderate center of Shiite Islam, democratically inclined and oriented to the West, that would be a counterbalance to Iran’s system of clerical rule. However, something like the reverse seems to have happened. As Iran has used its political connections to hold great sway over Iraq’s leadership class, and has backed militias responsible for assassinations and attacks on American bases, it has been less successful wielding other mechanisms of power at a grass-roots level."

This is the 8th/9th step of the Zionist plan for the Middle East. It is odd to read it in so many words in the New York Times, which consistently suppresses such information (it sounds ridiculous as an American goal when you consider how much money Americans spent on it). Of course, the Times spent a considerable amount of time paying people in Iraq to say bad things about Iran, downplaying the fact that Iran, and not Israel, won the American attack on Iraq.

Obama claimed America has been made safer and that the wars are drawing to an end, despite facts to the contrary. - President Barak Obama marked the ten-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan with a paper statement, claiming to already have made a public speech reflecting the decade of war last month, on the anniversary of September 11th. The statement contained the usual platitudes of patriotism and glorification of war. ”Thanks to the extraordinary service of these Americans, our citizens are safer and our nation is more secure,” Obama said. Obama made these statements, of course, while ignoring the mountains of evidence that these ten years of war, and in Afghanistan specifically, have exacerbated the terrorist threat America faces. War, occupation, Afghanistan’s corrupt client state, thuggish US-supported militias and a brutal night raid strategy have all increased anti-American hatred and resentment among a poor, uneducated, overly religious population. Obama also misled Americans in his statement by pretending that American troops were withdrawing in Iraq and drawing down in Afghanistan. In Iraq, an expanded diplomatic presence and military presence will remain past the December deadline for withdrawal. US presence, and heavy influence over the Iraqi regime in general will not go away any time soon.

Der Spiegel: German General Says NATO Mission Has 'Failed'
Jason Ditz: German General: Afghan War Has Failed

Iraq's President Jalal al-Talabani says all the Iraqi political leaders unanimously agree that the United States has to take its troops out of his country by an agreed year-end deadline. - “There was unanimity amongst political leaders on the withdrawal,” the head of state said in Baghdad on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. He made the comments after meeting with the country's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as well as other senior Iraqi figures in the Iraqi capital. Around 47,000 US troops are currently stationed in Iraq. The forces should all leave the country's soil by the end of 2011 under the terms of a 2008-clinched bilateral security deal known as the Status of Forces Agreement.

Earlier in the year, however, Robert Gates, the former US secretary of defense, who was recently replaced by Leon Panetta, pled for the extension of the military presence. Also in August, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, said that Washington would "keep some American troops in the country” at, what he called, Baghdad's potential request. Talabani said he expected that, during a next week meeting, Iraqi politicians agree whether some of the forces should remain for training purposes.

Iraq has finalized a deal to buy advanced U.S. fighter jets, the first step toward building a modern postwar air force, officials said. - Iraq has yet to publicly announce completion of the deal to buy 18 F-16s, but officials in Washington said an initial payment of $1.5 billion has been received. The deal is considered sensitive in Iraq, and the Pentagon and State Department have declined to comment until Baghdad makes a formal announcement. Iraq had plans to buy the planes earlier this year, but froze them for a time following the Arab Spring protests across the region. The decision by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to go forward with the purchase followed an unexpected surge in government oil revenue, officials said.

MSNBC: Iraq to buy US warplanes worth around $3 billion

Millions dead and injured, the untold story, horrible truths. Apologies for the bad internet connection.

The move came after a WikiLeaks cable suggested that Khanfar changed the network's coverage of the Iraq War as a result of U.S. pressure, The New York Times reports. - He will be replaced by a member of the Qatari royal family. Al Jazeera is a network controlled by Qatar. According to a cable sent by U.S. ambassador Chase Untermeyer in October 2005, an embassy official gave Khanfar reports by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency that showed the agency was critical of Al Jazeera's coverage of the war in Iraq, the Times reports. In the cable, Khanfar comes across eager to convince the U.S. official that Al Jazeera's coverage was fair and refers to an "agreement" made between the network and the U.S. government. “The agreement was that it was a non-paper,” the cable quoted Khanfar as saying. “As a news organization, we cannot sign agreements of this nature, and to have it here like this in writing is of concern to us.” Khanfar also said in a cable that he changed coverage at the official's request, removing images showing wounded children in a hospital and a woman with a wounded face, the Times reports.

New York Times: After Disclosures by WikiLeaks, Al Jazeera Replaces Its Top News Director

Same evil methods as the Jews in Palestine...

Following up on yesterday’s reports that President Obama intends to ignore the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and keep 3,000 troops in Iraq past the December deadline, hawkish members of Congress are looking to see if they can get that number raised even more. - House Armed Services Committe Chair Buck McKeon (R – CA) said occupation commanders told him they “shouldn’t go below 10 thousand,” while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC) said 10,000 was the “bare minimum.” The military forces will be part of the overall US occupation force, but this figure doesn’t include the thousands of military contractors which will remain, nor does it include the 5,000-plus State Department contractors that will be part of the “State Department Army” for Iraq.

John Glaser: Iraq Drawdown Signals New Client State Status, Ongoing Occupation

An Iraqi man died after suffering an "appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence" in a "very serious breach of discipline" by UK soldiers, a year-long inquiry has found. - Its chairman, Sir William Gage, blamed "corporate failure" at the Ministry of Defence for the use of banned interrogation methods in Iraq. Baha Mousa died with 93 injuries in British army custody in Basra in 2003. Prime Minister David Cameron said such an incident should never happen again. "The British Army, as it does, should uphold the highest standards," he said. "If there is further evidence that comes out of this inquiry that requires action to be taken, it should be taken."

Craig Murray: The Partiality of Lord Goldsmith
Craig Murray: New Labour's Complicity in Torture - Truly Evil

The WikiLeaks spotlight is once again trained on American war crimes in Iraq. - As the cold-blooded 2007 killing of Iraqi civilians, including a Reuters cameraman, by US soldiers in an Apache helicopter, shocked everyone last year, the latest disclosures detailing numerous instances of the casual brutality of occupation forces are sure to outrage the world. In just one instance, during a raid in 2006, an entire Iraqi family, including one man, four women and five children, was executed and their house blown by a US airstrike in order to destroy the evidence. The incident was reported soon after by John Glaser of Antiwar.com but back then in 2006 the US media and officials had hushed it up as “mere allegations.” Who knows how many such “mere allegations” are out there waiting to be discovered? No wonder, the US and its other Western allies have gone after the whistleblower, using everything and every power at their disposal to silence him. But you cannot suppress the truth forever, can you?

US Zerocracy in IRAQ: The American Occupation Crimes Continue to Unravel! - More than five years after the American military denied claims that its troops had executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians in cold blood, new evidence has emerged in a WikiLeaks diplomatic cable casting serious doubt on the U.S. version of events.

US officials denied at the time that anything inappropriate had occurred. [Apparently, it's APPROPRIATE to shoot a 5-month-old infant in the head, US tax dollars at work. And, btw: Some US troops really ARE 'baby killers,' aren't they? --LRP] 01 Sep 2011 A cable in the latest tranche of documents released suggests US troops executed 10 Iraqi civilians, including an elderly woman and an infant, before bombing to destroy the evidence. The controversial ['Controversial?' It's a f*cking WAR CRIME.] 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi involved the execution-style murder of 10 civilians including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant. The unclassified cable, which was posted on WikiLeaks' website last week, contained questions from a United Nations investigator about the incident, which had angered local Iraqi officials, who demanded some kind of action from their government. US officials denied at the time that anything inappropriate had occurred.

An aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell has hit out at Dick Cheney, saying the former Vice President s fears being 'tried as a war criminal'. - Powell's long-time aide and chief of staff, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told ABC news Cheney, 'Was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration,' adding, '[He] fears being tried as a war criminal.' The attack comes in the wake of attempts by Cheney to publicise his new book, with Powell accusing the one-time vice president of taking 'cheap shots' at the former Bush administration. According to early reports, Cheney's forthcoming book breaks with the former administration's version of events. But former Secretary of State Powell has dismissed Cheney's sensational claims as 'supermarket tabloid' material designed to 'pump up sales'.