Russian officials are meeting with Iraqi officials, to discuss deals that include oil and military.
Russian oil companies are already involved with oil production in Iraq. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, says Iraq is now interested in military help from Russia.
Lavrov is meeting with various Iraqi leaders this week.
A source close to prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sader, say they have seen Israeli aircraft on the al-Asad air base in Iraq.
The aircraft have been taking part in night time training exercises. The unnamed source says the exercises are part of preparations to attack Iran.
This is not the first time that Israeli aircraft have operated in Iraq. In 2008 Iraqi government officials reported that the U.S. was allowing Israeli planes to land and take off form bases in Iraq.
Iraq and Syria announced plans to build a pipeline for natural gas, from Iran.
The 2,000 kilometer (1,242 mile) line will end up supplying gas to Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
Iraqi Prime minster Nuri al-Maliki, made several statements in the recent past, saying Iraq does not need U.S. troops. Now it seems Maliki is caving into demands from the Obama administration.
His latest statements are that Iraq does not need U.S. help for “internal” security, but help is still needed for training, weapons and financing. “If we talk about the internal need, our security forces are capable now to maintain the situation. But regarding the external challenge, yes, the Iraqi military still needs weapons to defend its sovereignty, especially for the air force.”-Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
Maliki also added that the Iraqi government must be unified in wanting the U.S. to stay: “No deal will happen unless there is a national unified stand. Otherwise everything will remain as it is and this pact will be terminated by the end of this year. A deal of any military cooperation with the United States, Britain, France or any other country will not happen unless everyone agrees.”
“Americans occupied our country and started corruption in here and ruined whatever was left by Saddam, therefore after 7 years and based on the security agreement (between Iraq and the U.S.), all the U.S. forces should leave Iraq at the end of 2011. The extended mission of the infidel occupiers in Iraq even for one single day after the mentioned date (as cited in the security agreement) is haram (religiously forbidden).”-Senior Iraqi Shiite Grand Ayatollah Kazzem al-Hosseini al-Haeri
Ever since officials from the Obama administration made statements about staying in Iraq passed the 2011 withdrawal date, the Iraqis have been really upset. Not only protests, but attacking U.S. bases.
According to some reports a U.S. base was attacked on April 23. Three rockets hit the Echo Army base near the city of Diwaniyah, in southern Iraq. This makes the fourth time the base has been attacked in the past few weeks. On April 22, two U.S. soldiers were killed, patrolling in southern Iraq. No details were given by U.S. officials. So far for April nine U.S. personnel have been killed.
More than a year ago a lower court dismissed manslaughter charges against the guards of Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe Services. Iraqis claimed Blackwater employees randomly shot Iraqi civilians. The U.S. Army called it a “criminal event”.
Now an appeals court judge says the lower court judge was F*ed up, when he dismissed the charges. Judge Ricardo Urbina “…made a number of systemic errors based on an erroneous legal analysis.”-Appellate judges Douglas Ginsburg, Merrick Garland and Stephen Williams
Urbina dismissed the charges on the grounds the U.S. Justice Department mishandled the evidence, and, ironically, he felt the accused had their consitutional rights violated. I say ironically, because no “enemy combatant” is afforded any constitutional rights under this bogus War on Terror!
The appeals court also ordered Urbina to disclose if any evidence was tampered with.
The Blackwater (Xe Services) guards were originally charged with 17 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and one count of violating U.S. arms export regulations. NY Times video
Several Iraqi women say Christopher J. Kirchmeier, an official with L-3 Communications, seized their security badges and sabotaged their U.S. visa applications, because they refused to have sex with him.
The women also say Kirchmeier’s bosses, and U.S. State Department officials, know about it, because they filed complaints. But nothing has been done about it. A U.S. Army officer has backed up their claims.
Time and time again, Iraqi officials have told the leadership of the United States to get its troops out of Iraq, yet, U.S. leadership acts as if the Iraqis want the U.S. to stay.
“If Iraq wants to keep some American troops in the country to offset its military vulnerabilities, I’m sure the U.S. government would welcome the discussions, but it needs to start very soon.”-U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen
About a week before Admiral Mullen made that statement, Defense Secretary Gates said the same thing.
“If folks here (Iraqis) are going to want us to have a presence, we’re going to need to get on with it pretty quickly in terms of our planning.”-Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense
Gates made that public statement after Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki told him no: “The Iraqi government is against of any presence of U.S. troops or other foreign troops on the Iraqi territory since they cause internal problems and problems in the region for Iraq.”-Nuri al-Maliki, Iraqi Prime Minister
Obviously the leadership of the United States doesn’t understand what ‘NO’ means. That wasn’t the only time (so far since January 2011) the United States was told by Iraqi leaders to get out.
“All Iraqi officials want a U.S. pullout from their country, and based on the Baghdad Security Pact signed by the two sides, all U.S. forces should withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.”-Bahr al-Uloum, former Iraqi Oil Minister
“Mr. Maliki rejected Gates’ demand, saying that Iraq will deal with the issue based on the security pact (signed between Washington and Baghdad).”-Ali al-Dabbaq, Iraqi Government Spokesman
“I don’t believe there is any need for them to stay after 2011. Because we are ready right now, we are fully qualified, competent. And we don’t have any will or wish for them to stay here, and there won’t be any American forces after 2011.”-Mohammad al-Askari, Iraqi Ministry of Defense spokesman
“They are not going to leave Iraq, and if they don’t leave Iraq by the end of 2011, then there will be no peaceful demonstrations, there will be something else.”-Iraqi protester
“We want them to get out of the country. It’s the last year for them.”-Sheik Ahmed al-Hasnawi
Get the point? Then what’s the motivation behind Robert Gates and Michael Mullen acting like the Iraqis are asking the U.S. to stay? So far, the only political group asking the U.S. to stay is the semi-autonomous Kudrish parliament. But their region, the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, is not covered under the current agreement for U.S. troop withdrawal. And Kurdish officials point out they have no say in it: “It is not related to Iraq’s Kurdish officials and they have no role in the U.S. forces’ stay or exit. It is up to the central government to decide on the issue.”-Sabah Barzandi, member of the parliament of Iraq’s Kurdistan region
For some reason the United States leadership is trying to use the Kurdish card as the reason for NOT leaving Iraq. Is it because of the strong ties, that Kurds have, to Iran? Is it because the U.S. is very close to invading Syria (just to the west of Iraqi Kurdistan), and then invading Iran (just to the east of Iraq)?
“Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right. I had a problem with the Saddam regime. I wanted to get rid of him and now I had this chance.”- Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed “Curveball”
The man that was the source for Bush Jr’s claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, codenamed Curveball, has admitted that he made the whole thing up.
Curveball was interviewed by the U.K. newspaper, The Guardian. Colin Powell was made a fool when he went before the United Nations, with a speech based on Curveball’s lies. Curveball says he was shocked to see that the U.S. actually believed his lies.
Curveball (Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi) made up the story about mobile WMD labs. He claimed he actually worked in one. Now he says it was all lies. As of today, April 21, 2011, no WMDs have been found in Iraq.