String of Election-Related Bombings Fuels US Talk of Delayed Iraq Withdrawal
At least fourteen people have been killed and nearly sixty wounded in a string of attacks in Baghdad on the first day of voting in Iraq's parliamentary elections. Iraq opened its polls on Thursday for early voting, including for hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police officers and prisoners. We speak to Nir Rosen, an independent journalist who has covered the Iraq war since 2003. Ref. Source 6
Seven Years of War: On Anniversary of US Invasion, Iraqi Feminist Yanar Mohammed Says Iraq Is No Different Under Obama than Bush
Today marks the seventh anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. We go to Baghdad to speak with Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq. "Privatization, no security for the working class, much investment for multinational companies," Mohammed says. "We have] a democracy which has brought forward groups which are transformations of the first political forces"¦militias [that are] now politicians"¦sitting in the Green Zone." Ref. Source 9
Sadr tells Iraqis they must oust American forces:
Muqtada al-SadrShiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday called on Sunnis and Shi'ites to unite to oust American forces. In an address read to tens of thousands of supporters at a rally to mark the seventh anniversary of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Sadr said that without Iraqi unity "the occupation and its advocates will stay in Iraq without fear". Ref. Source 8
US And Britain 'Did Not Believe Iraq's Weapons Programme Was A Real Threat'
By The Telegraph
Former UK diplomat Carne Ross claimed that the Government ''intentionally and substantially'' exaggerated its assessment of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in public documents. Ref. Source 9
Audit finds Pentagon can't account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds:
The audit found that shoddy record keeping by the Defense Department left the Pentagon unable to fully account for $8.7 billion it withdrew between 2004 and 2007 from a special fund set up by the U.N. Security Council Ref. Source 4