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BAGHDAD (AP) - Available soon: nine palaces in lakeside complex frequented by visiting kings and dictators, beautiful molded ceilings and light fixtures, many bidets, Saddam Hussein mural and former prison cell. As is, with Tomahawk missile damage. Contact: U.S. Army. Thus might read a real estate ad for the Victory Base Complex, one of the many properties the U.S. military is vacating as the Dec. 31 deadline for its withdrawal from Iraq approaches. It will leave behind probably some of the most elaborate, some would say tacky, office spaces ever used by American soldiers, sailors or Marines.

It seems that Hollywood never learns its lesson. The anti-military "Green Zone" has now become but the latest of such movies to bomb bigtime at the box office. This report from a Los Angeles Times blog chronicles how "Green Zones" has joined a list of similar financial disasters such as "In the Valley of Elah," "Rendition," and "Redacted": "Green Zone" is the last drama set to be released by a major studio related to the Iraq war, and Hollywood is undoubtedly grateful for it after the picture, directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matt Damon, opened to just $14.5 million...

"Green Zone" looks at an American war in a way almost no Hollywood movie ever has: We're not the heroes, but the dupes. Its message is that Iraq's fabled "weapons of mass destruction" did not exist, and that neocons within the administration fabricated them, lied about them and were ready to kill to cover up their deception. Is this true? I'm not here to say. It's certainly one more element in the new narrative that has gradually emerged about Iraq, the dawning realization that we went to war under false premises. "Green Zone," directed by Paul Greengrass, is a thriller...

The whole WMD thing in Iraq? Faked, in this leftist fantasia's telling. Despite being guilty of gross insubordination, lying to his superiors and concealing important evidence from them (a notebook containing the addresses of Saddam's top officers), [Matt Damon's character] is the hero of the film. Others we're supposed to cheer for include Sunni officers who shoot down helicopters carrying American soldiers sent to assassinate them. Those death squads are acting at the behest of a duplicitous Pentagon intelligence mandarin (Greg Kinnear) who has single-handedly drummed up a fake casus belli. Before the war, he interviewed a general of Saddam's...

After all of Hollywood's Iraq movies have flopped (even the Oscar-garlanded "The Hurt Locker" earned only $15 million at the box office), one studio thinks it has the following secret to success: The previous films didn't insult the United States enough. "Green Zone," opening Friday, is a $100 million slime job that conjures up a fantastically distorted leftist version of the war and wraps it around a frantic but preposterous action picture. (Spoilers about the plot follow.) Matt Damon plays Miller, an Army "chief" (chief warrant officer) assigned to searching for weapons of mass destruction in Baghdad in the opening...

"Is the new Matt Damon film Green Zone the most rabidly anti-American film yet made about Iraq"?

NO one doubts that “Green Zone” comes with what Adam Fogelson, the chairman of Universal Pictures, calls an action movie “pedigree.” The film, which opens across the country on March 12, stars Matt Damon and reunites him with Paul Greengrass, the director who brought a propulsive visual style to “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” And television ads and trailers promise plenty of suspense, firepower and, of course, fighting in close quarters. But while “Green Zone” looks and moves much like a Bourne sequel, it also comes with a significant strike against it as a commercial proposition: It’s a...

Justice: Once again, Americans asked to put their lives on the line go on trial. Their crime was doing the very job we asked them to do in Iraq. Will they now be sacrificed for an ungrateful Iraq?On Tuesday, five members of a tactical support team of Blackwater Worldwide security guards in Iraq made their first appearance in U.S. District Court on charges ranging from voluntary manslaughter to the use of automatic weapons. The "crime" was protecting State Department personnel under fire in a war zone and firing back. On Sept. 16, 2007, 18 members of the "Raven 23" team...

An all-out attack on the Iraqi government came in the form of a series of powerful assaults that hit central Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. The attacks raise a number of questions, among them who had the capacity to carry out the co-ordinated attacks and was the US right to pull out of Iraq's cities when it did? As Baghdad reels from its bloodiest day this year, experts and journalists consider who might have been behind the attacks and what their motives might have been. Mosab Jasim, Al Jazeera English producer in Baghdad Jasim: It would be really difficult to enter...

BAGHDAD — A series of explosions targeting government and commercial buildings struck Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least 75 people and wounding more than 312, Iraqi police said. The blasts in the capital followed a string of attacks in Iraq this month that have claimed hundreds of lives and raised concerns about the ability of Iraqi security forces to keep the lid on violence in advance of an American withdrawal.

Shells hit Baghdad’s protected Green Zone Back-to-back strikes are the first in more than three months BAGHDAD - Suspected militants shelled Baghdad's protected Green Zone on Saturday in the first such bombardment in more than three months. The back-to-back strikes reverberated across the Tigris River to a popular promenade, sending families packing up from fish restaurants and abruptly halting a party at a club. Violence across Iraq remains sharply down compared with past years, but attacks and bloodshed have edged up in recent weeks and brought worries that it could slow the return of nightlife and commerce to parts of...

Dare we dream of a world in which al Qaeda no longer exists? The terrorist network responsible for September 11 may be headed for the dustbin of history, according to "Global Trends 2025," the latest report by the National Intelligence Council. But the report isn't all good news. The NIC, a center of strategic thinking within the American government, says the ultimate demise of al Qaeda will coincide with a different set of terrorist challenges. The Obama administration would be wise to take stock of these findings and heed the warnings. First, the good news: The report confirms one of...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1, 2009 – The United States formally transferred the Republican Palace back to the Iraqi government today, a concrete symbol of the continuing improvement in the country. The transfer came about as the status of forces agreement between the United States and Iraq took effect. The agreement replaces the United Nations mandate under which the coalition went into Iraq and has conducted operations there since. Under the agreement, Iraqi forces are now in the lead with U.S. forces in a supporting role or in overwatch. Officials said that American troops are still on duty at some of the...

Reporting from Baghdad -- As Iraqi schoolchildren sang their country's praises and a band played, the United States formally handed over military control of the heavily fortified Green Zone to Iraqi troops today, a first major step in the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. For Iraqis, the Green Zone, a walled-off 4-square mile community in Baghdad's core, has come to symbolize the U.S. occupation of their country. Home to about 30,000 residents -- including 14,000 U.S. and coalition forces -- it also encompasses Saddam Hussein's opulent Republican Palace, which was captured by American troops in April 2003 and was,...

I think quite a number of Iraqis were embarassed by how their guest got treated today. Personally, I got angry. Very angry. I will make a public promise: should I ever run into a certain reporter called Muntather al-Zaidi, presently of Al-Baghdadia TV, I will seriously consider beating the crap out of him. If I am successful in bringing him down, then my coup de grace shall be to take one of his shoes, preferably the one on the right, and stuff it in his mouth. I know that will be illegal. I am willing to face all the legal...

Two powerful bombs exploded outside the Iraqi capital's tightly-guarded Green Zone on Tuesday as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was ending a visit focused on a controversial military pact. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said an agreement was "very close" and that there were "new ideas and new language" to clinch a mutually-acceptable security deal. "This needs some bold political decisions now," he said. An Iraqi military officer said at least one soldier was wounded in the blasts which went off in quick succession at a time of heavy traffic.

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

BIDEN: Number one, there is not a single military man in this audience who will tell this senator he can get those troops out in six months if the order goes today. Let's start telling the truth. Number one, you take all the troops out. You better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone where I have been seven times and shot at.

The green zone of Baghdad, a highly fortified slice of American suburbia on the banks of the Tigris river, may soon be handed over to Iraqi control if the increasingly assertive government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, gets its way. A senior Iraqi government official said this weekend the enclave should revert to Iraqi control by the end of the year. “We think that by the end of 2008 all the zones in Baghdad should be integrated into the city,” said Ali Dabbagh, the government’s spokesman.

Picture, if you will, a tree-lined plaza in Baghdad's International Village, flanked by fashion boutiques, swanky cafes, and shiny glass office towers. Nearby a golf course nestles agreeably, where a chip over the water to the final green is but a prelude to cocktails in the club house and a soothing massage in a luxury hotel, which would not look out of place in Sydney harbour. Then, as twilight falls, a pre-prandial stroll, perhaps, amid the cool of the Tigris Riverfront Park, where the peace is broken only by the soulful cries of egrets fishing. Improbable though it all may...

BAGHDAD - Bombardments by suspected militants killed four U.S. soldiers Monday as troops tried to push Shiite fighters farther from the U.S.-protected Green Zone and out of range of their rockets and mortars. At least 44 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces since September. The U.S. military said three soldiers were killed in eastern Baghdad by indirect fire, a reference to mortars or rockets. The statement did not give an exact location for the attack, but the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City has been the scene of intense fighting...

BBC News, Baghdad More than 400 people have died in Sadr City in recent weeks The radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has rejected preconditions set by the government for talks to end Iraqi army attacks on his militia force. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki ordered a national crackdown on militias just over a month ago, including on fighters linked to Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army. Sporadic fighting between Shia militia and government troops has continued in Baghdad's Sadr City over the weekend. In the latest clashes at least eight people have been killed. This brings the total number of deaths...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A barrage of about a dozen rockets struck near Baghdad's fortified Green Zone diplomatic and government compound on Sunday evening in what appeared to be one of the biggest strikes in weeks. The rockets could be heard whistling past from the east of the Iraqi capital as they flew in the direction of the riverside compound and exploded, Reuters correspondents on the opposite river bank said. The strikes took place during a heavy sandstorm. U.S. forces normally use helicopters to retaliate against fighters who target the Green Zone, but sandstorms prevent the helicopters from flying, letting fighters...

U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Declared Ready, With Nudge by RocketsBy Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 18, 2008; Page A19 The troubled effort to build the giant U.S. Embassy in Baghdad seemed to be months away from completion when a team of top State Department officials flew to Iraq on March 20 to meet with senior staff from the prime contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting. But as insurgent rockets began to rain down on the flimsy trailers housing diplomats inside the Green Zone, the two sides suddenly found ways to settle many of the major issues...

WASHINGTON — A Kuwait contractor has concluded the construction of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. On April 14, the State Department issued a certificate of acceptance for the 104-acre, 27 building compound. The $474 million facility is the largest U.S. embassy in the world, with 619 apartments for staffers as well as restaurants, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, volleyball court, and indoor Olympic-size swimming pool. After years of delay, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting completed the design and construction of the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The project, plagued by faulty construction and scandal, was certified by the State...

A St. Louis-born U.S. Army colonel was killed in Iraq Sunday, according to his sister, Kathleen King of O’Fallon. Col. Stephen K. Scott, 54, was serving at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad where he was working with Iraqi leaders on weapons intelligence and defense. Scott, who was an avid runner, was in the workout facilities in the green zone when he was killed during a mortar attack, King said. -snip- After basic training, Stephen Scott worked at the Army Aviation and Troop Command facility on Goodfellow Boulevard in St. Louis until it was closed in 1997. He then moved to...

BAGHDAD — Sharp fighting broke out in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on Sunday as American and Iraqi troops sought to control neighborhoods used by Shiite militias to fire rockets and mortars into the nearby Green Zone.But the operation failed to stop the attacks on the heavily fortified zone, headquarters for Iraq’s central government and the American Embassy here. By day’s end, at least two American soldiers had been killed and 17 wounded in the zone, one of the worst daily tolls for the American military in the most heavily protected part of Baghdad. Altogether, at least three American...

3 US troops killed, 31 wounded in Iraq By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD - Rockets or mortars slammed into the U.S.-protected Green Zone and a military base elsewhere in Baghdad on Sunday, killing three American soldiers and wounding 31, an official said The attacks occurred as U.S. and Iraqi forces battled Shiite militants in Sadr City in some of the fiercest fighting since radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire a week ago. At least 16 Iraqi civilians were killed in the fighting, according to hospital officials. A military official said two U.S. troops died and 17 were...

British fear US commander is beating the drum for Iran strikes By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 1:53am BST 05/04/2008 British officials gave warning yesterday that America's commander in Iraq will declare that Iran is waging war against the US-backed Baghdad government. A strong statement from General David Petraeus about Iran's intervention in Iraq could set the stage for a US attack on Iranian military facilities, according to a Whitehall assessment. In closely watched testimony in Washington next week, Gen Petraeus will state that the Iranian threat has risen as Tehran has supplied and directed attacks by militia...

WASHINGTON, March 27, 2008 – Terrorists launched 11 indirect-fire attacks against civilians, Iraqi security forces and coalition forces in Baghdad today. Five indirect-fire attacks struck in the vicinity of the International Zone, killing one civilian and wounding 14. Three indirect-fire attacks struck two U.S. forward operating bases and one joint security station east of the Tigris River, injuring four U.S. soldiers. Five mortar rounds struck two joint security stations and a “Sons of Iraq” citizen security group checkpoint in West Rashid, wounding three Iraqi security volunteers. “These rogue elements are haphazardly firing rockets and mortars, killing and injuring innocent Iraqi...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has instructed all personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad not to leave reinforced structures due to incoming insurgent rocket fire that has killed two American government workers this week. In a memo sent Thursday to embassy staff and obtained by The Associated Press, the department says employees are required to wear helmets, body armor and other protective gear if they must venture outside and strongly advises them to sleep in blast-resistant locations instead of the less secure trailers that most occupy. "Due to the continuing threat of indirect fire in the International Zone,...

Green Zone Hit for Fourth Day This Week 23 minutes ago BAGHDAD (AP) — Shiite militants are hammering the U.S.-protected Green Zone with rockets and mortars for the fourth day this week. Thick, black smoke is billowing from inside the heavily fortified home to the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo says no one has been injured in Thursday's attacks. American military officials say the attacks are coming from breakaway factions of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The groups are believed to be funded and trained by Iran. However, Iran has denied the allegations.

BAGHDAD - Warning sirens wail and within seconds rockets and mortars strike — sometimes one or two, other times 10 or more. The Green Zone is again a prime target as American and British diplomats, Iraqi politicians, contractors and others struggle to go about their business — always aware that any time they are outside the most fortified buildings there is a chance to be injured or killed. The danger has temporarily reshaped life: Green Zone traffic is minimal, few people venture out on the streets and security precautions — always high — have been boosted. Many diplomats and others...

Haider Al-Assadee / EPA Fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr in Basra< The bold mid-afternoon kidnapping of Tahseen Sheikhly is a sign of the unrest spreading since Iraqi security forces started clamping down on Shiite militiamen in Basra. BAGHDAD -- Rockets and mortars rained down on Baghdad today, and a high-ranking Iraqi government spokesman was abducted from his home, as violence continued in the wake of a crackdown on Shiite Muslim militiamen. Scores of people have died since the fighting erupted early Tuesday, including at least 51 in the southern oil port city of Basra, where the Iraqi offensive...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Terrorists fired 16 rockets into the International Zone from surrounding Baghdad districts in four separate attacks during the morning and early afternoon of March 26. At approximately 5:30 a.m., five 107 mm rockets impacted the IZ, four more 107 mm rockets struck at approximately 9:15 a.m., three 107 mm rockets in the third attack, and four 107 mm rockets at approximately 2:50 p.m. One Coalition force Soldier, two U.S. civilians, and one Iraqi Army soldier were wounded in the attack. Several structures and one vehicle were also damaged. "These attacks are being conducted by rogue criminal elements,"...

The State Department confirms that two U.S. citizens have died in Iraq this week from indirect fire by rocket and mortar attacks in the Green Zone. The first person, a contractor for the US Army, died on Monday, March 24, and this afternoon, we have confirmation that another U.S. citizen has died from the latest round of fire. The State Department says of this latest death "no further details, pending notification of next of kin."

Someone get Diane Sawyer a crash course in indirect fire. Discussing this morning the recent flurry of rocket and mortar attacks landing inside the Green Zone in Baghdad, Sawyer supposed that the insurgents had somehow breached the perimeter themselves and fired from inside the US embassy compound! Sawyer spoke with Jonathan Karl during the opening minutes of today’s Good Morning America. DIANE SAWYER: But let’s begin with this breaking news from Iraq, reports that mortars have landed inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad. ABC national security correspondent Jonathan Karl has been working this story. Jonathan, good morning to you....

My window panes rattled again Wednesday morning. That told me two things: Another mortar attack was under way and the mood in the Green Zone was about to change quickly. ADVERTISEMENT Joggers disappear from the streets. People normally walking around in T-shirts and jeans toss on body armor and helmets. Any plans to leave your compound are abruptly canceled. Nerves become strained. E-mails zip between Green Zone pals, asking if anyone was hurt. The war — usually fought on the other side of the 15-foot concrete blast walls — is falling again on Baghdad's famous fortified oasis that includes the...

An American financial analyst working for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has died of his wounds from an Easter Day rocket attack against the heavily fortified Green Zone, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT Paul Converse, 56, was hit when rockets fired by suspected Shiite militia fighters rained down on the U.S.-protected area in central Baghdad Sunday. His parents, Dick and Leona Converse of Corvallis, Ore., told the Gazette-Times newspaper they learned Sunday that their son had been wounded and likely wouldn't survive. On Monday, two officers from the Oregon Army National Guard arrived at their door to inform them of...

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Insurgents on Tuesday slammed at least four rockets into the heavily-fortified Baghdad Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, Iraqi and US officials said. At least four Katyusha rockets struck the Green Zone, an Iraqi security official said. The latest assault comes just two days after insurgents fired four waves of rockets and mortars into the area, which once served as Saddam Hussein's presidential compound, injuring six people and damaging buildings. (snip) The top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, blamed neighbouring Iran for the weekend attacks, saying they were "Iranian-provided,...

THE top US commander in Iraq blamed neighbouring Iran for rocket attacks over the weekend on the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, in an interview with the BBC. General David Petraeus said that the rockets "were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets" and added that Iran's actions were "in complete violation of promises made by President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts". Each of the four attacks on the Green Zone on Sunday, which in total injured at least four people and damaged buildings, sent staff of the US embassy scurrying for the shelter of nearby...

The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets. He said Iran was adding what he described as "lethal accelerants" to a very combustible mix. ... In an interview with BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, Gen Petraeus said violence in Iraq was being perpetuated by Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards. "The rockets that were launched at the...

BAGHDAD - Rockets and mortars pounded Baghdad's U.S.-protected Green Zone Sunday and a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army post in the northern city of Mosul in a surge of attacks that killed at least 57 people nationwide. The latest violence underscored the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups as the war enters its sixth year and the U.S. death toll in the conflict approaches 4,000. Attacks in Baghdad probably stemmed from rising tensions between rival Shiite groups — some of whom may have been behind the Green Zone blasts. It was...

Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone was hit by a sustained barrage of rocket or mortar bomb fire early on Sunday and emergency sirens could be heard in the Iraqi capital's government and diplomatic compound. It was not immediately clear where most of the missiles landed or if there were any casualties after an apparent attack lasting about 15 minutes, Reuters witnesses said. The U.S. military has blamed past missile attacks on the Green Zone on rogue elements of anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. Sadr last month renewed a seven-month old ceasefire for his militia. A large plume of...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A barrage of mortar bombs or rockets hit Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone, home to the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government ministries, on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. A siren wailed in the Green Zone warning people to take cover amid a series of at least 10 explosions, Reuters reporters said. "I can confirm that we did receive indirect fire and that it was multiple rounds," said U.S. military spokesman Major Brad Leighton, referring further queries to the U.S. embassy. U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo refused to say whether there had...

BAGHDAD - A series of explosions thundered in the Iraqi capital Saturday morning, police said, including one from a mortar round that hit the U.S.-controlled Green Zone. One of the explosions was a roadside bomb that targeted a U.S. patrol in eastern Baghdad. A police officer said the blast site was sealed by American forces and there was no immediate way to detail damage or casualties. There was no immediate report of the incident from the U.S. military. Another police officer confirmed a mortar round hit the heavily protected Green Zone. The Americans did not report damage or casualties from...

John Matel is a career Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who is currently serving as the team leader of the Provincial Reconstruction Team embedded in Al Asad, Al Anbar Province.I just finished reading a news article discussing some of my FSO colleagues' vehement and emotional response to the idea that a few of us might have directed assignments in Iraq . To my vexed and overwrought colleagues, I say take a deep breath and calm down. I have been here for a while now, and you may have been misinformed about life at a PRT. I personally dislike the whole idea...

Marine Brotherhood I saw something today that taught me volumes about the brotherhood of Marines. As I stood in line to grill my sandwich, I watched a young corporal preparing two meals to-go. There was nothing really special about the meals . . . except this. It was obvious to me that this Marine was carefully selecting different things for each tray. One was for him, the other was for his buddy who stood guard at the gate. He carefully selected meat and cheese, meticulously grilled and wrapped them, then chose sides. I was moved by the obvious care with...

BAGHDAD — The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, amid mounting public outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the U.S. Embassy's security provider Blackwater USA. The move came even as the Iraqi government appeared to back down from statements Monday that it had permanently revoked Blackwater's license and would order its 1,000 personnel to leave the country — depriving American diplomats of security protection essential to operating in Baghdad. "We are not intending to stop them and revoke their license indefinitely...

The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.