Plea to Clinton as Iraq detains foreign workers. Iraq Is Angered by U.S. Drones Patrolling Its Skies. Yet again U.S. Department of Defense can’t account for billions in Iraq. By End the Lie Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Two new audits conducted by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) have discovered that the United States Department of Defense (DOD) cannot account for a whopping $2 billion it was given to fund the reconstruction of Iraq.
To make matters even worse, the DOD is not even providing Iraq with a complete record of the construction projects funded by the United States, making the accounting even more difficult, if not impossible. Back in 2004, Iraq provided $3 billion to the DOD to fund selected construction projects, but only about one third of those funds have been tracked according to the inspector general’s “January Quarterly Report and Semiannual Report” which was released recently and can be located here (along with other reports released by the inspector general).
According to CNN, in a letter separate from the report sent by the inspector general’s office to the U.S. Iraq falling back into 'authoritarianism': HRW. Violence Explodes In Iraq … Again. Still think Ron Paul’s foreign policy views are kooky?
Two weeks after a deadly wave of bombings killed 63 people in Baghdad, warring religious sects in Iraq are once again blowing each other up. Well, it’s more likely that al-Qaeda in Iraq is blowing people up – hoping to incite sectarian violence. A suicide bombing targeting Shiite Muslims in Nasiriya, Iraq killed at least 36 people, while dozens of others perished in a series of bombings in Baghdad. According to the Associated Press, at least 72 people are dead as a result of the coordinated attacks. “Our guess is that this is the first of many attacks to come,” we wrote after the initial round of explosions on December 22. Of course we didn’t expect such a speedy, widespread resumption of the terror campaign. The bombings come in the wake of U.S. A total of 4,484 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq. “We don’t particularly care if Iraq’s ‘democracy’ survives,” we wrote last month. Pic: via Daylife. Suicide bomber kills more than 50 in Iraq.
Iraqi security forces inpsect the scene of a suicide bombing that killed more than 50 people Saturday near Basra.
NEW: Iraqi president and U.S. Embassy condemn the attackThe incident is the deadliest attack on Shiites since U.S. completed withdrawalThe death toll has climbed to at least 53 killed, ministry saysThe bomber struck at a police checkpoint outside the city of Basra, officials say Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman targeted Shiite pilgrims Saturday outside the southern Iraqi city of Basra, killing at least 53 people and wounding 137, the Interior Ministry said.
The blast was the single deadliest attack on the Shiite community since the U.S. military completed its troops withdrawal from Iraq. A January 5 suicide attack on Shiite pilgrims west of the southern city of Nasiriya killed 44. President Jalal Talabani called on security forces to beef up their efforts in protecting the war-torn country.