IRAQ: Beyond the Green Zone - Inter Press Service

IPS Correspondent Gareth Porter talks to Real News.

The U.S. military establishment believed they could easily pressure President Obama to back down on his pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. Having found Obama unconvinced by their argument, they have now launched a campaign in Washington to blame Obama's withdrawal policy for any future instability in Iraq.

The Ancient Wither in New Iraq
By Karlos Zurutuza
BASRA - "I’d say there are around 5,000 of us in the country, but if you ask me next week we may well be under 3,000. After twenty centuries of history in Mesopotamia, we Mandaeans, are about to vanish." Anxiety about the future of his people is more than evident in the figures given by Saad Atiah Majid, chairman of Basra’s Mandaean Council.
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U.S.
A Decade in the Purgatory Called Guantanamo
By Charles Davis
WASHINGTON - Hundreds of protesters, dozens outfitted in orange jumpsuits and black hoods, took to the streets outside the White House on Wednesday to demonstrate against torture and indefinite detention on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. prison facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
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US-IRAN
War of Words Calculated to Avoid Actual Conflict
By Barbara Slavin
WASHINGTON - The recent escalation in Iranian threats to blockade oil shipments and attack U.S. Navy vessels are meant to push up the price of oil and divert domestic opinion from an economic crisis but are not likely to lead to a war in the Persian Gulf, in the view of Iran experts.
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U.S.
"Arab Spring" Dominated TV Foreign News in 2011
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - The so-called "Arab Spring" led U.S. network television evening news coverage during 2011, comprising a total of about 10 percent of all the news coverage provided by the three major commercial networks during 2011, according to the latest annual review by the authoritative Tyndall Report.
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Mass Tragedy Feared as Closure of MEK Camp Looms
By Barbara Slavin
WASHINGTON - The Barack Obama administration and the United Nations are struggling to convince the leadership of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group with cult-like characteristics, to vacate a camp in Iraq and allow residents to move to another location in the country or risk the lives of as many as 3,200 people.
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U.S.
Hundreds Rally in Support of Accused WikiLeaks Source
By Charles Davis
WASHINGTON - Hundreds of people gathered today outside a U.S. military base where evidence against Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking classified information to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, is being presented before a military judge for the first time since Manning's arrest.
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How Maliki and Iran Outsmarted the U.S. on Troop Withdrawal
Analysis by Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON - Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's suggestion that the end of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq is part of a U.S. military success story ignores the fact that the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. military had planned to maintain a semi-permanent military presence in Iraq.
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U.S.
Iraq Intervention Ends with Scarcely a Whimper
Analysis by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - When the United States formally ended its eight-and-a-half year military adventure in Iraq on Thursday with a flag-lowering ceremony presided over by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta Baghdad, hardly anyone here seemed to notice, let alone mark the occasion in a special manner.
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Soviet-Armed Iraq Switches Allegiance to U.S. Weapons Systems
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK - As the United States withdraws the last of its 50,000 troops after a nearly nine-year military occupation of Iraq, visiting Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki had one final request: billions of dollars worth of U.S. weapons for his ragtag armed forces.
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BOOKS-US
Deconstructing Thomas Friedman
By Sandra Siagian
NEW YORK - A new book on the influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman sets out to debunk his hawkish, neoliberal views, accusing him of overt racism, factual errors and skewed judgments on issues ranging from the U.S. invasion of Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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"Who Lost Iraq" Debate Fails to Get Traction
Analysis by Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Two weeks after President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of all remaining U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of next month, a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks and prominent Republicans are blaming the president for "losing" the Middle Eastern country to its neighbour and long-time Washington nemesis, Iran.
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As U.S. Exits Iraq, "Endgame" in Afghanistan Remains Elusive
By Barbara Slavin
WASHINGTON - Washington's failure to gain Iraqi approval for a significant U.S. military presence in that country beyond December could make it harder for Afghanistan to agree to a similar deployment beyond 2014.
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U.S.-IRAQ
Obama Confirms Full Withdrawal by Christmas
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - In a decision promptly denounced by Republicans, President Barack Obama announced here Friday that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the Christmas holidays in late December.
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Turkish Troops Enter Iraq After PKK Attacks
By Correspondents*
DOHA, Qatar - Turkish forces have launched an incursion into the mountains of northern Iraq following simultaneous attacks by Kurdish separatists in southeastern Turkey that killed at least 26 soldiers.
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U.S. Hawks Behind Iraq War Rally for Strikes Against Iran
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Key neo-conservatives and other right-wing hawks who championed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq are calling for military strikes against Iran in retaliation for its purported murder-for-hire plot against the Saudi ambassador here.
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U.S. Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - Officials of the Barack Obama administration have aggressively leaked information supposedly based on classified intelligence in recent days to bolster its allegation that two higher- ranking officials from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington, D.C.
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Unlike most other international news media, who report on Iraq from inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, IPS's Iraqi correspondents spread across the country to bring you some of the boldest reporting about this war-torn nation. To this IPS adds incisive coverage from the international centres of power where the future of Iraq is being moulded.