Iraqis “do not want to be led around on a leash by the Iranians,” Representative Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. “But, unfortunately, due to the chaos and confusion in the Iraqi central government, Iran is paradoxically the best poised to take advantage of the grass-roots unrest.”
Archiv: Iraq
Trump, Netanyahu Discuss Iran in Phone Call Following U.S. Military Visits to Israel
In recent weeks, several high-ranking U.S. military officials either visited Israel or met with their counterparts in the Israeli military. These meetings mainly revolved around the issue of Iran and the growing tensions over Tehran’s activities in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Milley Says Middle Eastern Nations Want U.S. Involved in Region
Army Gen. Mark A. Milley also discussed the need for deterrence regarding Iran. Milley spoke with military and civilian leaders in Israel, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq on this four-day trip.
Ayatollah Sistani warns of enemy plot seeking to create civil strife, bring back ‚era of dictatorship‘
„It is imperative on peaceful demonstrators that they separate their ranks from non-peaceful individuals and cooperate on shunning saboteurs – whoever they are – and not allow them to abuse peaceful protests to damage and attack the property of citizens,“ a representative of Ayatollah Sistani said as he delivered the top cleric’s sermon.
„The enemies and their levers, in order to achieve their malicious goals, plan to spread chaos and plunge the country into internal strife and then return it to dictatorship, so everyone must work together to take away this opportunity from them,“ he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Says He Will Resign After Shi’ite Cleric’s Leadership Challenge
Abdul Mahdi’s decision came in response to a call for a change of leadership on Friday by Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the statement said.
„In response to this call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand (to accept) my resignation from the leadership of the current government,“ said the statement, signed by Abdul Mahdi.
Readout of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Milley’s Meeting with Iraqi Joint Headquarters Chief of Staff Gen. Othman Al-Ghanimi
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley met with Iraqi Joint Headquarters Chief of Staff Gen. Othman Al-Ghanimi today in Baghdad, Iraq.
The senior leaders discussed the vital strategic partnership between the U.S. and Iraq and the current security environment throughout the Middle East.
DOD chief asks for Navy secretary’s resignation over private proposal in Navy SEAL’s case
“The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin,” Trump wrote. “This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!”
Pence Visits U.S. Troops in Iraq, Meets With Kurdish Leader
ERBIL, Iraq—Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Iraq on Saturday for an unannounced visit with U.S. troops days before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and he met with the leader of Kurdistan but didn’t visit Baghdad.
U.S. VP arrives in Baghdad on surprise visit
Pence’s trip included visiting the U.S. troops in Ayn al-Asad air base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, where hundreds of U.S. troops are stationed, the Iraqi NINA news agency said.
The US and Iran in Iraq: Protestors take over the streets, demanding government reforms “or else”…
Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert, a Dutch diplomat serving as Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations assistance mission in Iraq since November 2018, visited the Grand Ayatollah Sistani at his home in Najaf. A few days later, Thursday the 14th at 20:00 pm, IRGC-Quds brigade commander Qassem Soleimani landed at Najaf airport and visited Sayyed Sistani to discuss his requests for a solution to the unrest in the country. Soleimani returned to Baghdad the same evening with clear answers: reforms are inevitable within a specific time-table, and the US and Iran should stop intervening because protestors are for the most part sincere and have justified demands.
International Criminal Court may investigate UK ‚war crimes cover-up‘
The ICC said it took the findings very seriously. The MoD has said the allegations are unsubstantiated.
Army accused of covering up killing of children in Afghanistan and Iraq
The year-long investigation claims to have found evidence of murders by an SAS soldier, as well as deaths in custody, beatings, torture and sexual abuse of detainees by members of the Black Watch.
A senior SAS commander was referred to prosecutors for attempting to pervert the course of justice, the investigation claims.
UK government and military accused of war crimes cover-up
Operation Northmoor was set up by the government in 2014 and looked into 52 alleged illegal killings.
Its closure was announced by the government before Royal Military Police detectives even had a chance to interview the key Afghan witnesses.
Biden’s Support of Iraq War Shows How He Would Run the White House
Biden’s support for the invasion seems to demonstrate a belief that the United States need not abide by its international legal obligations, including those prohibiting wars of aggression. As a result, his support for the invasion of Iraq is not simply a “mistake.” It is very relevant and says a lot about what kind of president he would be.
Iran strikes initial deal to rebuild Syrian power grid
A memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries’ electricity ministers in Tehran covered the construction of power plants, transmission lines, cutting losses in Syria’s electricity network, and the possibility of connecting the two countries’ grids through Iraq, the state news agency IRNA said.
Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen: Calculating the Millions-High Death Toll of America’s Post-9/11 Wars
(26.4.2018)
As Barbara Lee presciently warned her colleagues before she cast her lone dissenting vote in 2001, we have “become the evil we deplore.” But these wars have not been accompanied by fearsome military parades (not yet) or speeches about conquering the world. Instead they have been politically justified by “information warfare” to demonize enemies and fabricate crises, and then waged in a “disguised, quiet, media free” way, to hide their cost in human blood from the American public and the world.
After 16 years of war, about 6 million violent deaths, 6 countries utterly destroyed and many more destabilized, it is urgent that the American public come to terms with the true human cost of our country’s wars and how we have been manipulated and misled into turning a blind eye to them – before they go on even longer, destroy more countries, further undermine the rule of international law and kill millions more of our fellow human beings.
Nach Abzug aus Syrien: US-Truppen müssen Irak verlassen
Die US-Truppen, die aus Syrien kommend in den Irak wollen, dürfen dies nur, wenn sie anschließend den Irak wieder verlassen. Das hat das irakische Militär mitgeteilt. „Es gibt keine Genehmigung für diese Truppen, im Irak zu bleiben“, hieß es in einer Mitteilung.
US expands ‚axis of evil‘
(6.5.2002)
The United States has added Cuba, Libya and Syria to the nations it claims are deliberately seeking to obtain chemical or biological weapons.
Trump Just Created a Moral and Strategic Disaster
(14.10.2019)
History is littered with instances of one-time allies abandoned by Washington to their fate — the Bay of Pigs invasion; the fall of South Vietnam; numerous internal uprisings, like Hungary in 1956, that were fanned by the United States only to be smothered when aid, implicit or explicit, was withheld. The United States has abandoned the Kurds — a stateless people who live in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Armenia and Iran — on numerous occasions in just the past half century. The most infamous of these betrayals came when Saddam Hussein attacked them with poison gas in 1988, and the Reagan administration protected the Iraqi government from congressional sanctions.
it’s crazy that she is smearing a current serving major, who volunteered to provide service to a war that she herself lied us into, as a traitor to her country.
President Donald Trump moves to stop ‚endless wars.‘ I stand with him: Sen. Rand Paul
Then-candidate Trump said often that the Iraq War was a mistake, and that we were in too many places for too long. Fast-forward to 2019, and the president is now moving forward to stop the “endless wars.” I stand with him.
The idea that our president would make this decision from this perspective is refreshing and long-awaited. Virtually every president in my lifetime has ended up in a new conflict or extending and expanding the old ones.
In particular, in the past 18 years, from Iraq to Libya to Syria, past presidents went into one bad misadventure after another.
Trump’s Syria pullout was right. Why is the Washington establishment so shocked?
“The same people that got us into the Middle East Quicksand, 8 Trillion Dollars and many thousands of lives (and millions of lives when you count the other side), are now fighting to keep us there. Don’t listen to people that haven’t got a clue. They have proven to be inept!”
The tweet represents one of the most significant indictments that a US president has ever issued against the foreign policy that his own country has pursued in the Middle East for several decades.
Graham-Trump rollercoaster hits dizzying speed
More recently, Trump and Graham have battled over foreign policy after Graham tweeted that the administration’s decision not to retaliate militarily to Iran’s downing of an American drone “was clearly seen by the Iranian regime as a sign of weakness.”
Trump bristled, insisting, “No Lindsey, it was a sign of strength that some people just don’t understand!”
He later mocked Graham’s support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, asking reporters “how did going into Iraq work out?”
Defending Syria Pullout, Trump Says U.S. Should Never Have Been Involved in ‚Stupid‘ Mideast Wars
Trump’s call for ending U.S. military involvement in the Middle East and bringing the troops home was a feature of his presidential campaign, but it flies in the face of many decades of bipartisan American policy, even as the Trump administration and its immediate predecessor have tried to give additional attention to what they see as long-term security threats elsewhere, including from China and Russia.
Fighting between various groups that has been going on for hundreds of years. USA should never have been in Middle East. Moved our 50 soldiers out. Turkey MUST take over captured ISIS fighters that Europe refused to have returned. The stupid endless wars, for us, are ending!
Furious Donald Trump calls going into the Middle East ‚the worst decision ever made‘ and demands Turkey take responsibility for captured ISIS fighters – opening way for Erdogan’s forces to move into Kurdish Syria
Trump suggested that Republican predecessor George W. Bush, whose military invaded Iraq based on bad intelligence, was responsible for entangling the United States in a regional quagmire that has resulted in more 50,000 American casualties since 2001.
‚We went to war under a false & now disproven premise, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. There were NONE! Now we are slowly & carefully bringing our great soldiers & military home. Our focus is on the BIG PICTURE! THE USA IS GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!‘ he proclaimed.
Trump said that religious clashes in the Middle East will never be resolved by an American military presence.
The Only Way to End ‘Endless War’
(14.09.2019)
It requires more than bringing ground troops home from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. American war-making will persist so long as the United States continues to seek military dominance across the globe. Dominance, assumed to ensure peace, in fact guarantees war. To get serious about stopping endless war, American leaders must do what they most resist: end America’s commitment to armed supremacy and embrace a world of pluralism and peace.
Snipers blamed for bloodshed as Iraq death toll nears 100
A government spokesperson told FRANCE 24 that a probe into the killings is under way. But so far, authorities say they have no idea who is behind them.
Click on the player above to watch the report by Simona Foltyn and Lucile Wassermann.
Is Turkey’s third Syria incursion looming?
Furthermore, Turkish authorities do often question the motives of the continued military support of the U.S. to the YPG although the war against ISIL has already been won. Many in Ankara recall the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq in the 1990s and express concerns that this trend in Syria may lead to the disintegration of its southern neighbor.
Baghdad governor quits amid demonstrations in Iraqi capital
The governor of the Iraqi capital province of Baghdad, Fallah al-Jazairi, has stepped down in the wake of demonstrations against corruption, unemployment and poor public services in the country.
On Sunday, members of the Provincial Council voted in favor of accepting Jazairi’s resignation, and he quit his post.
Iraq authorities lift curfew as normalcy returns to streets of Baghdad
A number of protesters and security personnel have been killed as a result of the provocations.
On Friday, Iraqi police said in a statement that “unidentified snipers” killed two security forces and two civilians across the capital Baghdad earlier in the day.
Arab media outlets and observes have published reports revealing that the US seeks to drive recent anti-corruption protests in Iraq into chaos in a bid to install a pro-US regime.
Iraq’s Sistani warns against using violence in protests
(04.10.2019)
„There have been unacceptable and condemned attacks on demonstrators, policemen and properties in Baghdad along with a number of provinces,“ al-Sistani said in a statement.
„In different areas, the demonstrations have led to riots and bloody clashes that left dozens of victims and wounded,“ he added.
Sistani warned of the „serious repercussions of the use of violence and counter-violence,“ calling for „avoiding it in all cases“.
Iraqi forces bust terror cell plotting to assassinate Ayatollah Sistani: Report
Meanwhile, the correspondent for the Iran-based Arabic-language al-Alam television news network, Navid Behrouz, reported that the captured terrorists had planned to incite protesters to storm Ayatollah Sistani’s office.
Earlier in the day, Grand Ayatollah Sistani urged Iraqi security forces and protesters to avoid violence, expressing sorrow over some sporadic unrest that has led to several casualties.
“It is sorrowful there have been so many deaths, casualties and destruction” from clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in recent days, he said in a letter on Friday.
Syria and Iraq open a key border crossing closed since 2012
(30.09.2019)
BEIRUT — Syria and Iraq announced the reopening of a border crossing between the two countries Monday, a step toward the normalization of Iraq’s relationship with its western neighbor and a boost to Iran, which will now have an open corridor into Syria.
Iraq reopens Syria crossing in win for mutual ally Iran
(30.09.2019)
The crossing, which Iraqi officials declared open for travellers and trade, is crucial for Iran’s bid to cement its growing sway over a corridor of territory from Tehran to Beirut.
The opening of the crossing signified „the victory of the Iraqi and Syrian people over all terrorist groups, especially Daesh,“ said Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Khaled al-Rahmoun, using a term for Islamic State.
Iraq opens border crossing with Syria and within 48 hours mass protests broke out in Iraq. ? The economic situation in Iraq is in dire straits (like in the entire MENA region. It’s for example F U in Morocco too), but it went from 0 to 100 in nanoseconds.
(03.10.2019)
THE PARDONS; BUSH PARDONS 6 IN IRAN AFFAIR, ABORTING A WEINBERGER TRIAL; PROSECUTOR ASSAILS ‚COVER-UP‘
(25. Dezember 1992)
Mr. Weinberger was scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 5 on charges that he lied to Congress about his knowledge of the arms sales to Iran and efforts by other countries to help underwrite the Nicaraguan rebels, a case that was expected to focus on Mr. Weinberger’s private notes that contain references to Mr. Bush’s endorsement of the secret shipments to Iran.
William Barr Supported Pardons In An Earlier D.C. ‚Witch Hunt‘: Iran-Contra
(14.01.2019)
Barr, who is scheduled to go before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for his confirmation hearings, ran the Justice Department once before, under President George H.W. Bush.
Back then, the all-consuming, years-long scandal was called Iran-Contra. On Dec. 24, 1992, it ended when Bush pardoned six people who had been caught up in it.
„The Constitution is quite clear on the powers of the president and sometimes the president has to make a very difficult call,“ Bush said then. „That’s what I’ve done.“
Ahead of pilgrimage, Iran border crossing closed due to Iraq unrest
A senior Iranian pilgrimage official told state television that the Khosravi border crossing was closed, but other crossings were open ahead of the pilgrimage in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala.
Israel responsible for attacks on Popular Mobilization Units: Iraqi PM
“The government is preparing sufficient evidence and documents to complain to the [UN] Security Council. It won’t submit a complaint against an unknown entity,” Assadi said.
Iraq reopens Syria crossing in win for mutual ally Iran
Iraq reopened its Qaim border-crossing with Syria on Monday after eight years of closure amid regional turmoil, in the latest sign of normalization between Baghdad and Damascus and a win for their mutual ally Iran.
Iraq PM visits Saudi Arabia for regional security talks
(25.9.19) Riyadh opened a consulate in Baghdad in April 2019 and pledging $1.5 billion in loans to Iraq during the trip. The Arar border crossing between the two countries is set to reopen next month after nearly three decades of closure.
8 IS militants killed in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq
Acting on intelligence tip-off, a joint force from Salahudin’s Operations Command, backed by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition aircraft, conducted an operation to hunt down IS militants in a desert area in west of the provincial capital Tikrit, said a statement by the media office of the Joint Operations Command (JOC).
Iraq’s Removal of Counterterrorism Chief Sparks Controversy
The 56-year-old general, who in recent years led the fight against the Islamic State group working alongside the U.S.-led coalition, said he did not know the reason for the proposed transfer and would prefer to retire rather than be moved to the defense ministry.
Spies and the White House have a history of running wild without congressional oversight
For decades now, the evolving role of congressional oversight of US intelligence has involved major clashes and scandals, from the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s to the intelligence abuses that led to the 2003 war in Iraq.
Central to all of these clashes are attempts by intelligence agencies, the president and the executive branch to withhold damning information from Congress. Another common element is the use of civilians to carry out presidential or intelligence agency agendas.
Iraqi Prime Minister agrees to open Al Qaim crossing at Syrian border
On the Syrian side it connects with the Al Bukamal border crossing point in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor and is controlled from the Syrian side of the border.
There are currently three crossings at the Iraqi-Syrian border: Rabia, also referred to as Al-Yarubiyah, located in Syria’s Al Hasakah province controlled by Kurdish-led forces and the At Tanf crossing located in an area controlled by US forces in Syria.
What I Didn’t Find in Africa
(2003) Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?
Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Joseph Wilson, Who Challenged Iraq War Narrative, Dies at 69
He contradicted a statement in President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address. A week later, his wife at the time, Valerie Plame, was outed as a C.I.A. agent.
Jacques Chirac, a giant of French politics, dies at 86
Chirac was barely a year into his second presidential term when he was faced with the biggest diplomatic challenge of his career as then US president George W. Bush attempted to build a “coalition of the willing” against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
The French leader was resolutely unwilling to join the coalition, emerging as a formidable voice of opposition against a military invasion. His Gallic “non” frayed France’s relations with the US and Britain, but it also won him legions of admirers at home and abroad.
Pompeo says attack was ‚act of war‘ on Saudi Arabia, seeks coalition
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – The United States wants to build a coalition of European and Arab partners to deter Iran after an attack on Saudi Arabia that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described on Wednesday as „an act of war“ against the world’s top oil exporter.