Category Archives: Iraq

Iraqi Gov’t Takes A Stand Against US Contracted Mercenaries

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The Iraqi government said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad.

The Interior Ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday shooting. It was latest accusation against the U.S.-contracted firms that operate with little or no supervision and are widely disliked by Iraqis who resent their speeding motorcades and forceful behavior.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.

“We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities,” Khalaf said.

Yahoo!
Word up to MBG at MostlySemantics for this one.

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Study: 655,000 Iraqis Have Died As A Result of War

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George W. Bush made news last year when he said that 30,000 Iraqis—“more or less”—have died as a result of the U.S. war and ongoing violence in Iraq.

Try “more.”

A study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published in the British medical journal the Lancet concludes that 655,000 more Iraqis have died since March 2003 than would have died if the United States had not invaded their country. The researchers, working with funding from MIT’s Center for International Studies, say that about 600,000 of these deaths were the result of violence. The remaining 55,000 were the result of disease or other nonviolent causes.

How large a number is 655,000? It’s equal to about 2.5 percent of Iraq’s total population. If 2.5 percent of Americans were killed in a war here, the death toll would be an unimaginable 7.4 million.
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Billions Wasted in Rebuilding Iraq , Says US Audit

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A US congressional inspection team set up to monitor reconstruction in Iraq today publishes a scathing report of failures by contractors, mainly from the US, to carry out projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

  • In one case, the inspection team found that three years after the invasion only six of 150 health centres proposed for Iraq had been completed by a US contractor, in spite of 75% of the $186m (£100m) allocated having been spent.

  • The report says Mr Bowen’s inspection team is investigating 72 cases of alleged fraud and corruption, and is pursuing leads not only in the US but in Europe and the Middle East.

  • In a separate section, the report notes that a former contractor and former senior staffer in the now defunct US-led coalition government are facing jail sentences 30 to 40 years on corruption charges.The contractor will have to pay $3.6m in restitution and forfeit $3.6m in assets.

    • GuardianUK

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    Iraq War Could Cost US Over $2 Trillion, Says Nobel Prize-winning Economist

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    The real cost to the US of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion (£1.1 trillion), up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert.

    The study, which expanded on traditional estimates by including such costs as lifetime disability and healthcare for troops injured in the conflict as well as the impact on the American economy, concluded that the US government is continuing to underestimate the cost of the war.

    Mr Stiglitz told the Guardian that despite the staggering costs laid out in their paper the economists had erred on the side of caution. “Our estimates are very conservative, and it could be that the final costs will be much higher. And it should be noted they do not include the costs of the conflict to either Iraq or the UK.” In 2003, as US and British troops were massing on the Iraq border, Larry Lindsey, George Bush’s economic adviser, suggested the costs might reach $200bn. The White House said the figure was far too high, and the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, said Iraq could finance its own reconstruction.

    GuardianUK

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    U.S. Military Covertly Pays Company to Place Stories in Iraqi Press

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    Designed to mask any connection with the US military, The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group’s Iraqi staff or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

    CorpWatch

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    The Man Who Sold the War

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    John Rendon is a man who fills a need that few people even know exists. The Pentagon secretly awarded him a $16 million contract to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda. He is a leader in the strategic field known as “perception management,” manipulating information—and, by extension, the news media.

    Rolling Stone

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    MARINE APCs (TANKS) APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD

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    LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 – At 7:50 PM, What were first reported to be tanks and now identified as Marine APCs showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood.

    The APCs circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered.

    Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the APCs, but police quickly cleared the street.

    The people continued to protest the presence of the Marines, but after about ten minutes they drove off. It is still unclear as to why they were deployed to this location.

    From LA Indy Media
    Video Can Be Downloaded Here

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