Open Your Eyes News » Iraq

Soldiers’ Suicide Rate Tied to Access to Problems at Home

biochemist — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:00:06 +0000

WSJ – A sharp increase in U.S. Army suicides is likely due to an increase in a range of stresses on soldiers both at home and in war zones, a top Army officer said Thursday. A 15-month-study on the rise in suicides over the last two years found 160 suicides among active-duty personnel, 1,713 suicide attempts and 146 deaths from high-risk behavior, such as drug abuse, in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009. Read article

Spanish arrest warrants for US soldiers

The Historian — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:01:47 +0000

AFP – A Spanish judge re-issued international arrest warrants on Thursday for three US soldiers over the death of a Spanish TV cameraman in Iraq seven years ago by American tank fire. National Court judge Santiago Pedraz’s move followed a decision by Spain’s Supreme Court earlier this month to reopen an inquiry into the death of Jose Couso during the shelling by US forces of a Baghdad hotel in April 2003. Read Article

Violence targeting Iraqi military kills at least 21

The Historian — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:35:33 +0000

CNN – Attacks on military posts and police stations in Iraq claimed at least 21 lives Thursday. At least three Iraqi soldiers were killed and eight others wounded when a suicide bomber driving a mini-truck loaded with explosives hit an Iraqi military post in the town of Shirqat, police in Tikrit said. The town is located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Baghdad. Read Article

US ‘high on military’ in rush to Iraq war: Blix

The Historian — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:37:47 +0000

The Age – BRITAIN and the United States should have realised their intelligence about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction was flawed, the former head of the United Nations weapons inspectors has told an inquiry. Giving evidence to the Iraq inquiry in London on Tuesday, Dr Hans Blix said it should have set alarm bells ringing in Whitehall and Washington when the inspectors repeatedly failed to turn up any evidence that Saddam Hussein still had WMD Read Article

Four soldiers killed in Iraq attacks

The Historian — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:27:25 +0000

AFP – Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and 22 people were wounded in bomb attacks in northern and central Iraq on Thursday, security officials said. In the deadliest attack, three soldiers were killed and 12 wounded when an insurgent detonated a car bomb near an army base in Al-Sharqat, 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Baghdad in Salaheddin province, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. Read Article

Iran stoning case woman fainted on hearing sentence, says cellmate

biochemist — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:02:31 +0000

The guardian – A former cellmate of a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran, who spent two years in prison with her and accompanied her to the court when she received the news of her punishment, has told the Guardian how the woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, fainted in shock after hearing the verdict. Read article

Twelve killed in Iraq as Shiite pilgrimage ends

The Historian — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:23:13 +0000

AFP – A series of attacks in Baghdad and a holy Iraqi city killed 12 people, while five others died in a helicopter crash, as major religious ceremonies came to a close, officials said on Wednesday. In the deadliest attack, mortars killed seven people and wounded 46 in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, as pilgrims gathered late on Tuesday to mark the birthday of the Mahdi, the 12th and last Shiite imam. Read Article

GE pays $23m after Iraq probe

The Historian — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:20:42 +0000

Financial Times – General Electric has agreed to pay $23.5m to settle allegations from US regulators that its subsidiaries bribed Iraqi officials to win contracts under the United Nations Oil for Food Programme between 2000 and 2003. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission is the second in as many years for GE. Last year, the company agreed to pay $50m to resolve charges of accounting fraud relating to hedging activities in 2002 and 2003 Read Article

U.S. can’t account for $8.7 billion of Iraq’s money: audit

The Historian — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:16:50 +0000

Reuters – The U.S. Department of Defense was unable to account properly for $8.7 billion of Iraqi oil and gas money meant for humanitarian needs and reconstruction after the 2003 invasion, according to an audit released on Tuesday. The figure is nearly 96 percent of the $9.1 billion funneled to the Pentagon from the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), said the audit report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Read Article

Twin car bomb in Iraq kills 20

The Historian — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:32:56 +0000

BBC – Two car bombs have exploded near the southern Iraqi city of Karbala, killing at least 20 people, officials say. The bombs went off on the road from the city of Najaf, which is often used by Shia pilgrims travelling to shrines. Read Article

Iraq crisis deepens as parliament session scrapped

The Historian — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:32:48 +0000

AFP — Iraq’s parliament on Tuesday postponed indefinitely what would have been only its second session since a March election, extending a political deadlock that has plagued the country. Read Article

Wikileaks’ 10 greatest scoops

The Historian — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:14:30 +0000

Daily Telegraph – Wikileaks, the whistleblowing website, has released 90,000 documents about American and British actions in Afghanistan since the start of the war. Here are its 10 greatest previous scoops. Read Article

Cancer rate in Fallujah worse than Hiroshima

biochemist — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:00:59 +0000

Tehran Times – The Iraqi city of Fallujah continues to suffer the ghastly consequences of a U.S. military onslaught in late 2004. According to the authors of a new study, “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009,” the people of Fallujah are experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual mutations than those recorded among survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the years after those Japanese cities were incinerated by U.S. atomic bomb strikes in 1945. The assault on Fallujah, a city located 43 miles west of Baghdad, was one of the most horrific war crimes of our time. Read article

Suicide bomber kills 4 outside Iraqi TV station

The Historian — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:20:06 +0000

ABC – Security officials say a suicide bomber has killed at least four people in an attack that appears to target the office of Dubai-based Al Arabiya television in Baghdad. Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi says the bomber, driving a mini-van, blew up the vehicle near the entrance of Arabiya’s office in Baghdad’s western district of Harithiya, killing a cleaner and three guards. Read Article

Reports emerge the UK used depleted uranium weapons in Iraq

The Historian — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:17:14 +0000

Russia Today – Reports have emerged that the UK used depleted uranium weapons during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A UK defense official has reportedly admitted using highly controversial ammunition. “UK forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003,” UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons Thursday Read Article

‘Mental disease rising among US troops’

biochemist — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:00:15 +0000

PressTV – America’s wars on Iraq and Afghanistan are taking a toll on US soldiers, as the latest statistics show one out of every nine American soldiers leaves the army on a medical discharge due to a mental disorder. “We have 100,000 troops and a third of them suffer some sort of mental health disease and half of those suffer multiple health disease,” Paul Martin from Peace Action told Press TV’s correspondent. Read article

Iraq intelligence fiasco could happen again

The Historian — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:29:06 +0000

Financial Times – So now we know. Iraq posed no real threat prior to the Anglo-American invasion of March 2003. There was no credible intelligence to suggest any link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. But what the assault on Iraq did do was proliferate jihadism across the Middle East and incubate Islamist extremism in the UK, leading to the London Tube and bus bombings five years ago and 15 other “substantial plots”. “Arguably we gave Osama bin Laden his Iraqi jihad,” Eliza Manningham-Buller, former director-general of MI5, the British domestic security service, told the UK war inquiry this week. Read Article

Chilcot inquiry: Iraq expert Carne Ross claims civil servants are withholding vital documents

The Historian — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:56:29 +0000

The Guardian – Britain’s ‘deep state’ of secretive bureaucrats is denying witnesses to the Chilcot inquiry crucial files. I testified last week to the Chilcot inquiry. My experience demonstrates an emerging and dangerous problem with the process. This is not so much a problem with Sir John Chilcot and his panel, but rather with the government bureaucracy – Britain’s own “deep state” – that is covering up its mistakes and denying access to critical documents. There is only one solution to this problem, and it requires decisive action. Read Article

UK admits using Depleted Uranium ammunition in Iraq

The Historian — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:37:36 +0000

Press TV – UK defense secretary says American and British forces used depleted uranium (DU) ammunitions during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. “UK forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003,” UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons on Thursday, the Kuwait News Agency reported. The announcement came after a joint study by the environment, health and science ministries in Iraq said there were communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels of radiation and dioxins. Read Article

Top Insurgents Escaped Prison Days After Iraq Took Over

The Historian — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 13:21:06 +0000

New York Times – An outsize ceremonial skeleton key traded hands last week in the official transfer of Camp Cropper, the last jail in Iraq that had been under American control. The Iraqi government was, one American general said, “equipped, prepared and poised to take over.” But it did not end the dark history of prisons in Iraq over the last seven years: Just five days later, four prisoners, at least three of them said to be high-ranking members in the nation’s most violent insurgent group, escaped. The warden and several guards are nowhere to be found. Read Article

In Rare Deadly Attack, Rocket Hits Iraq’s Green Zone

The Historian — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:04:57 +0000

New York Times – A rocket attack on Thursday on the Green Zone, the heavily barricaded section of this city that contains the main government buildings and the United States Embassy, killed three foreign contractors who work for the embassy, and wounded 15, including two American citizens. Read Article

British Deputy Prime Minister blasts ‘illegal’ Iraq war

The Historian — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:04:48 +0000

The Australian – BRITAIN’S Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has caused a stir by saying Britain’s decision to send troops to invade Iraq was illegal. Mr Clegg, standing in for Prime Minister David Cameron during question time while Mr Cameron is in the US, made the remark during heated exchanges with former foreign secretary Jack Straw. Clashing with Mr Straw on a separate issue, Mr Clegg said: “Perhaps one day he will account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all: the illegal invasion of Iraq.” His remark threatened to cause a rift with Mr Cameron and his Conservative partners — who supported the invasion in 2003 — and pre-empts the Chilcot inquiry into the war. It also raised questions over the position of British troops in Iraq and whether opponents of the war would use the comments as the basis for a legal challenge of the invasion. Read Article

Car bombing kills 12, wounds 24 in Iraq’s Diyala province

The Historian — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:54:04 +0000

Xinhua – Twelve were killed and 24 wounded when a booby-trapped car was detonated Wednesday in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, local police source said. The explosion occurred near a health center in the town of Abu Sayeeda north of Baquba, capital city of Diyala. Besides the casualties, a building collapsed shortly after the attack, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Some reports said the death toll was around 30, but Mohammed Hussan, mayor of the town, denied the reports Read Article

BP To Drill 80-100 New Oil Wells In Iraq’s Rumaila -Exec

sonyamac — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:02:27 +0000

Wall Street Journal – British oil major BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) and partners China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC.YY) and Iraq’s state-run South Oil Co. expect to issue tenders to drill between 80 and 100 wells in the immense Rumaila oil field this year and next year, a company executive said Monday. Earlier this year, BP awarded three deals valued at least $500 million to drill…Read Article

Civilian killed, 11 wounded in Iraq’s violence

The Historian — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:49:08 +0000

Xinhua – A civilian was killed and 11 wounded in bomb and gunfire attacks in Baghdad and eastern Iraq’s Diyala province on Wednesday, the police said. A civilian was killed and three others were wounded when a magnetic bomb attached to a car detonated in Baghdad’s western neighborhood of al-Ameriyah. Read Article