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BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. supermajor Exxon Mobil won't be able to take part in an oil and natural gas licensing auction scheduled for May in Iraq, a spokesman said. Iraq is expected to put around a dozen oil and natural gas blocks up for auction in its fourth licensing round, scheduled for May. Exxon Mobil is prohibited from taking part because it has contracts with the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. "The Iraqi government has decided that Exxon won't be allowed to participate in the next oil- and gas-bidding round," Faisal Abdullah, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry,...

An Iraqi woman has been accused of beating her teenage daughter and padlocking her to a bed after she was seen speaking to a young man. After Yusra Farhan was arrested in the Arizona hospital where her daughter was being treated for her injuries, she told police she wanted to punish the girl for violating her 'culture'. Farhan, 50, faces charges of aggravated assault, unlawful imprisonment and resisting arrest. She was being held in a Maricopa County jail. Police did not identify her daughter by name. The incident started on Tuesday, when the daughter was spotted by her father talking...

The New York Giants on Tuesday will be showered with confetti and greeted by throngs as they are feted with the city’s most storied honor: a parade through its Canyon of Heroes. But all the fanfare — the parade this week is the fourth since 2000 to honor a sports team — has touched off anger and unease among some returned Iraq veterans, who are eagerly awaiting their own recognition. “Everybody recognizes that the Giants deserve a parade,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. But, he added, “If a football team gets...

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In a move that was decried by the U.S., France, and Arab countries, Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.S.-backed proposal at the UN Security Council to condemn Syrian leader Bashar al-Assed for violence against Syrian citizens. The resolution that had demanded that Assad resign was backed by the Arab League, and the League on Saturday night called on Arab countries to shut down their embassies and consulates in Syria, and remove Syrian ambassadors from their countries. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that Washington was "disgusted" by the vetoes. The vetoes followed a particularly bloody night...

This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during January 2012. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 31 January 2012. The article “Iraqi Army Development Status January 2012” was written separately and will not be addressed here. Highlights in this update include: 8th RGB located; Iraqi Government not implementing agreements on Peshmerga. Little new at Army Day Parade; No contracts from Russia shopping trip. Still looking at L159s but, no contract. 2 OSVs to deliver in third-quarter 2012. New ISOF website.

SEOUL - South Korean security authorities were ready to carry out on-board inspections of a Bahama-registered freighter after being tipped off that the ship might carry some members of Al-Qaeda, police said on Thursday. The 17,000-tonne freighter, the Athenia, which was suspected of carrying members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda group, was due to arrive at the southwestern port of Kunsan late Thursday, the police said. “We have been informed that Al Qaeda members might be hiding in the ship,” a police officer in charge of foreign affairs in Kunsan Police station told AFP. “When the ship reaches the...

There they go again. The story is so old already. Arab militia or Arab army or Arab terrorist attacks non-Arab. Or was that Muslim fanatic attacks non-Muslim? This time, it's happening in Sudan. While we're sitting and talking, probably a few hundred more black Africans in Sudan have starved to death, or been brutally killed, raped, enslaved, or simply pushed off their land by 7th century Arab imperialist invaders, or more rightly "Arab settlers". Oh yes, that's right. "Arab settlers". Like the ones Saddam Hussein brought into Kurdistan - i.e., the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq - in the 1970s...

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Large crowds are gathering in downtown St. Louis to honor Iraq War veterans Saturday during the nation's first big welcome home parade since the last troops left the country in December. Veterans dressed in camouflage lined up alongside military vehicles at the start of the parade, while organizers handed out small American flags to people along the route, many holding signs reading "Welcome Home" and "Thanks to our service men and women."

Since the United States military withdrew from Iraq in the middle of last month, 434 Iraqis have been killed in attacks across the country, according to security officials, one of the highest tolls for that amount of time in the past few years. The latest attack occurred Friday when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives near a funeral procession in a Shiite neighborhood. The procession was for a man who had been fatally shot, along with his wife and son, a day earlier by insurgents. According to security officials, 31 people, including 8 police officers, were killed...

We are broke, that’s obvious, but the real reason Obama suddenly jerked all of our troops out of Iraq was so he could run around the country and tout a campaign promise he kept during his reelection bid. BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. pulled its troops out of Iraq because its economy is collapsing and it needed to save money, an al-Qaida front group said in a message posted on its website Wednesday, its first online comment since the U.S. completed its pullout last month after nine years of war. Al-Qaida was one of the main U.S. enemies in Iraq....

No doubt about it, President Obama deseves credit for the Iraq "surge". The AP reported on Tuesday that, "Attacks in Iraq have 'surged' since the U.S. troops left. [Because Obama refused to leave a residual force of U.S. troops in Iraq.] More than 160 people have been killed since the beginning of the year." Clearly, Obama deseves credit for the "surge" in Iraq.....

The Iraqi Army is the most developed service in the Iraqi Security Forces but, it has major components missing. The absence of sufficient support, anti-tank, logistics, artillery, and especially the total absence of air defense, makes the IA incapable of effectively fighting any of the countries bordering Iraq. Without those components, the IA is just an internal security force – unable to successfully fight a conventional war.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) -- A Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children pleaded guilty Monday to dereliction of duty in a deal that will mean a maximum of three months confinement and end the largest and longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops to emerge from the Iraq War. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich of Meriden, Conn., led the Marine squad in 2005 that killed 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha after a roadside bomb exploded near a Marine convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two others. It was a stunning and muted end to a case ....

Editor’s note: The world is at this moment witnessing a horrific phenomenon: Islamists coming to power throughout the Middle East under the guise of a supposed “Arab Spring” – while the President of the United States is facilitating the entire process. Indeed, President Obama is reaching his hand out in solidarity to Islamists and enabling their solidification of power throughout the region. While displaying a disastrous weakness with Iran and allowing the Mullahs to move ahead aggressively with their nuclear weapon program, the Obama administration is helping the Muslim Brotherhood take over Egypt and the Taliban regain power in Afghanistan....

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.number10.gov.uk/news/prime-minister-statement-on-alan-mcmenemy/ Prime Minister's statement on Alan McMenemy Friday 20 January 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed the British Embassy in Baghdad have received the body of hostage Alan McMenemy. The Prime Minister said: “It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British Embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men. The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan were returned in 2009. Peter Moore was the only hostage released alive...

Widow of Marine Corps Colonel Involved in Haditha Trials Launches Campaign to Prove Her Husband Was Murdered PRESS RELEASE January 12, 2012 – Easley, SC – Kimberly Stahlman, widow of Colonel Michael Stahlman USMC, is fighting to prove that her husband did not commit suicide but was instead murdered. However, the Marine Corps refuses to help. As part of this fight she partnered with Tracy Shue, widow of Colonel Philip Shue USAF and writer/military family advocate Cilla McCain and drafted a Bill of Rights for Bereaved Military Families. To bring this campaign to the public, they have started a petition...

Iraq’s former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Sunday that President Obama was wrong when he claimed the United States left Iraq as a stable and democratic country. Appearing on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, Allawi said, "It’s neither stable nor democratic, frankly speaking. The terrorists are hitting again very severely. Al Qaeda is fully operational now in Iraq" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

A bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 53 people in the latest sign of a power struggle between rival Muslim sects that has escalated since the American military withdrawal. Fears of more bloodshed have risen in recent weeks, with the U.S. no longer enjoying the leverage it once had to encourage the two sides to work together to rein in extremists. Most of the latest attacks appear to be aimed at Iraq's majority Shiites, suggesting Sunni insurgents seeking to undermine the Shiite-dominated government are...

In the last few days’ news has broken along with a videotape of four United States Marines urinating on some dead insurgents in Afghanistan. It is a little shocking to see just how quickly the American people are to throw our own to the wolves. People tend to act as though this is the worst thing that has ever been done by our military. Going back as far as World War Two there is evidence of routine executions of prisoners as well as torture and mutilation of dead bodies. There are even reports of American servicemen prying teeth from dead...

Decorated military veteran and best-selling author Oliver North tells Newsmax that, with the recently announced cuts to the U.S. military, the Obama regime is looking like the “Jimmy Carter administration on steroids.” North also asserts that President Obama’s efforts to deal with the growing Iranian threat have been an “abysmal failure” and warns that Israel will not “sit idly by and wait to be incinerated” by Iranian nuclear weapons. North served in the U.S. Marines for 22 years and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He also served on the staff of the National Security Council during the Ronald...

IRAQ INTEL 10 JAN 2011 The last 24 HRS have seen the Sunni attempt to give a "fresh blast" of air to the Shia pilgrims on their walk about to Karbala - 5 separate VBIED attacks targeting Shia walkers - totaled approximately 18 killed and 108 wounded as reported yesterday night. 8 IED attacks throughout the country as well targeting IP, IA, and government civilians resulted in wounded and killed. This report period has been the most active since this snap shot report started on 12 DEC 2011 - right after US Combat Troops left the theater.

The FBI said it searched eight addresses in Minneapolis and Chicago as part of a terrorism investigation Friday. Warrants suggest agents were looking for connections between local anti-war activists and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East. FBI spokesman Steve Warfield told The Associated Press agents served six warrants in Minneapolis and two in Chicago. "These were search warrants only," Warfield said. "We're not anticipating any arrests at this time. They're seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism." The homes of longtime Minneapolis anti-war activists Mick Kelly, Jess Sundin and Meredith Aby were among those...

Picture Emerges of Teen Suicide Pilot CHARLES BISHOP: To some, he was a smart, humorous student, which makes his suicide flight all the more incomprehensible. By CURTIS KRUEGER, KATHERINE GAZELLA and ED QUIOCO © St. Petersburg Times published January 8, 2002 ----------- Charles Bishop was a teacher's dream. He read Shakespeare in class, pulled together a middle school literary magazine and enjoyed a good game of flag football. Friends and family members who knew him best described Charles as a patriot. The teen who flew an airplane into the Bank of America building, carrying a note sympathizing with Osama bin...

  1-5-01 Kid didn't know it was '02 yet. I have prepared this statement in regards to the act I am about to commit. First of all, Osama bin Laden is absolutely justified in the terror he has caused on 9-11. He has brought a mighty nation to its knees! God blesses him and the others who helped make September 11th happen. The U.S. will have to face the consequences for its horrific actions against the Palestinian people and (illegible, could be Iraq?) by its allegiance with the monstrous Israelis who want nothing short of world domination! You will ...

To detractors, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki threw down the gauntlet with stunning speed when his Shi'ite Muslim-led government demanded the arrest of a Sunni Muslim vice president seemingly moments after the departure of U.S. troops. Already seen as having autocratic tendencies in a country where most people have known little but dictatorship, Maliki has long expressed doubt about the efficacy of his brawling partnership government of Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions. But the move to arrest Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and a demand that parliament remove Maliki's Sunni deputy, Saleh al-Mutlaq, ignited a political storm that threatens Iraq's shaky...

... In November of 2011, the Washington Post reported that the Iranian government had mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon after receiving assistance from foreign scientists. The Post went on to say: An intelligence update will be circulated among International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] members... It is expected to focus on Iran's alleged efforts towards putting radioactive material in a warhead and developing missiles... Julian Borger of the Guardian-UK reported in November of 2009: The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design......

What to do about Iraq? Rich Perry announced that he would redeploy US ground forces in Iraq and immediately fierce debate broke out on the wisdom of such a course of action. Ron Paul has been hampered for saying “they attack us because we are over there” while Rick Santorum contends that “they attack us because of who we are”. Huntsman sides with Paul, “We’ve done what we can do, folks. I say I want to bring our troops home.” Romney seems willing to go back into Iraq and Newt seems less willing. Clearly GOP policy on Iraq and indeed...

The fireworks at Disneyland had ended. It was past closing time and the crowds were pouring out the gates, but we lingered. Layla Alshawi, the 63-year-old mother of our friends, didn't want to leave. She hugged a light pole, joking that we would have to drag her out. We'd spent three days at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim with my friend, Saif Alnasseri, his wife, mother and 5-year-old daughter. Like my husband, whose name is also Saif, he was an Iraqi translator I met in 2007 during my rotations in the Los Angeles Times' Baghdad bureau. A little over three...

Iraq has formally asked authorities in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region to hand over Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and 12 of his entourage to face charges of running death squads, an Iraqi official said on Sunday. Iraq's Shi'ite-led government issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni politician in mid-December, shortly after the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, triggering a political crisis that threatens Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile governing coalition of Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish factions. The move against Hashemi and Maliki's request to parliament to remove Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, followed a few days later by...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Days after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, a federal appeals court ended a lawsuit over an episode that produced one of the more disturbing images of the war: the grisly killings of four Blackwater security contractors and the hanging of a pair of their bodies from a bridge in Fallujah. Families of the victims reached a confidential settlement with the company's corporate successor, Arlington, Va.-based Academi, and the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit last week. The settlement was first reported Friday by The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va. The deal ends the...

SNIPPET: "OSLO, Norway, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A Muslim extremist leader facing terrorism charges from his Norwegian hosts said this week he's planning on leaving for his native Kurdistan. Najmaddin Faraj, who goes by the name Mullah Krekar, in the 1990s was one of the co-founders of the Kurdish extremist group Ansar al-Islam, which Western officials say has links to al-Qaida." SNIPPET: "Krekar is due in Oslo District Court next month to face terrorism charges, the news agency said. Should he instead return to Kurdistan, he won't be facing any charges from the PUK, a party lawyer told Rudaw."

BAGHDAD (AP) — A wave of bombings targeting Shiites in Iraq killed 72 people on Thursday, deepening sectarian tensions that exploded just after the last American troops left the country in mid-December. The coordinated attacks targeting Shiites bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during December 2011. The article “ISF Total Force Mobilization Update December 2011” was published separately and will not be addressed here. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 31 December 2011. Highlights in this update include: * Kurdish forces still working with ISF; KRG getting a utility squadron of helicopters. * Iraqis shopping in Moscow; Mortars and unidentified armor received from Serbia; Kalsu to be IA Logistics Base. * Iraqis say they need 6 squadrons of F16s; First squadron of F16s ordered;...

I have grown cynical of party politics in mature democracies, including the most exciting democracy of all, the United States. In the middle of a spectrum exclusively defined by Republicans and Democrats, personality and style must be favored over platforms that few candidates are ever able to implement. So many people are bored by politics in the U.S. that half of the voters don’t bother to vote. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If politics does not affect the daily life of citizens, to the extent that most can choose to ignore it, then some wisdom has been found...

In north-central Texas, Kyle grew up dipping tobacco, riding horses and hunting deer, turkey and quail — a cowboy at heart. The son of a Sunday-school teacher and a church deacon, Kyle credits a higher authority for his longest kill. From 2,100 yards away from a village just outside of Sadr City in 2008, he spied a man aiming a rocket launcher at an Army convoy and squeezed off one shot from his .338 Lapua Magnum rifle. Dead. From more than a mile away. “God blew that bullet and hit him,” he said.

About the only people having a Happy New Year in the Muslim world aren't the Christians who are huddling and waiting out the storm, but the Islamists who use a different calendar but are having the best time of their lives since the last Caliphate. The news that the Obama Administration has brought in genocidal Muslim Brotherhood honcho Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to discuss terms of surrender for the transfer of Afghanistan to the Taliban caps a year in which the Brotherhood and the Salafists are looking up carve up Egypt, the Islamists won Tunisia's elections, Turkey's Islamist AKP Party purged the...

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is firmly opposed to any international military intervention in Syria and has called for a negotiated settlement of the conflict through regional means, Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said on Sunday. "We have seen the disaster and turmoil brought by international military intervention in more than one place, be it Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia or any other place. So, we fully oppose the idea of any such intervention but are open to dialogue and regional endeavors to resolve the conflict and to stop the blood-shed in Syria," Ihsanoglu said. The OIC chief called for the reforms promised...

Nearly 1,000 Kurds staged a protest in Istanbul Thursday against a Turkish airstrike that claimed 35 lives in Turkish-Iraqi border last night. Organized by The Peace and Democracy Party and Freedom and Democracy Party, The outraged protesters gathered at Istanbul city center of Taksim square and shouted slogans on Thursday afternoon. Clashes broke out as demonstrators threw stones against the police and attacked nearby shops while the police tried to disperse the crowd by cannoned water and tear gas. A total of 35 people were killed in a Turkish air raid in Iraq's northern region of Sinat-Haftanin Wednesday night. Most...

The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government. -excerpt- Among the big-ticket items being sold to Iraq are F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, cannons and armored personnel carriers. The Iraqis have also received body armor, helmets, ammunition trailers and sport utility vehicles, which critics say can be used by domestic security services to help Mr. Maliki consolidate power.

The Obama debacle continues on... Iran has threatened to halt traffic through the strait if the West moves to toughen sanctions including an oil embargo to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear program. The strait is the passageway for about a third of the world’s seaborne-traded oil last year, according to US Energy Department data. “Iran has total control over the strategic waterway,” Iranian Naval Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari told Iran’s Press TV yesterday as the Iranian navy conducted a 10-day exercise in international waters. “Closing the Strait of Hormuz is very easy for Iranian naval forces.” “The free flow...

An al-Qaeda-affiliated group has claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in Baghdad last week that killed at least 65, calling it the “Thursday Invasion” and saying it “knows where and when to strike.” The group, the Islamic State of Iraq, issued a communiqué on jihadist forums Monday, providing details about one of the attacks, a suicide car bombing that targeted an anti-corruption agency headquarters, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a jihadist monitoring service. The group did not mention the U.S. invasion, but instead said it was acting against what it called Iraq’s Shiite-controlled government.

After the Iraq war broke out, Ghazwan Al-Sharif went to work translating for the U.S. military - a job that paid well but subjected his family to repeated violence, including a brutal attack on his sister. Scared for his life, Al-Sharif accepted the government's offer to come to America as a refugee, one of thousands relocated to this country since the war began. In June 2008, he moved in with two other Iraqi refugees, sharing a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood - a situation arranged by the nonprofit International Rescue Committee. It wasn't long before Al-Sharif said he learned...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki BAGHDAD—Iraq's political crisis entered its second week one step closer to the potential dissolution of the government, with a call for elections by a vital coalition partner and a suicide attack that extended the spate of violence that has followed the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki—already battling to sustain his Shiite Muslim-dominated government in a standoff with Sunni coalition partners—faced a new threat on Monday as the party loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for the dissolution of Parliament and new polls. At the center of the crisis are efforts...

The United Nations' top envoy in Iraq, German diplomat Martin Kobler, does not expect civil war to break out in the country, he was quoted as saying on Monday. "The country is facing significant security problems," he said, pointing to a string of attacks since last week that have claimed dozens of lives. But Kobler does "not expect the outbreak of civil war" although he said there is a policy deadlock in the country, according to an interview published in the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel. …

Marine Lt. Col. Karl Trenker has a message for the criminal who shot him. “If he didn’t have a pistol I would’ve whipped his butt,” the Miramar resident said. Trenker’s fiancé advertised a gold necklace on Craigslist, hoping to drum up a little more cash for some Christmas presents. When Trenker went to the arranged meeting place outside an apartment complex in Deerfield Beach, the would-be buyers snatched the chain and took off running. Trenker gave chase. “I did not perceive any danger, and being a Marine and all I’m not one to back down from a fight, so I...

IAF may buy jets used by US in Iraq By YAAKOV KATZ 26/12/2011 Advantage in purchasing military equipment, senior IDF officer explains, is in the price, which would likely be dramatically lower than buying same equipment new. Due to the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East and potential delays to existing procurement plans, the IDF is looking at the possibility of purchasing fighter jets and other platforms used by the United States military in Iraq. The advantage in purchasing military equipment used by the US in Iraq, a senior IDF officer explained, was in the price, which would likely be...

Followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr also want new elections amid political crisis and fresh violence in Baghdad. A suicide attack killed five people at the interior ministry in Baghdad as a key political bloc called for early elections in a worsening standoff that has stoked sectarian tensions. The blast, which left dozens wounded on Monday, came just days after the capital was struck by its deadliest violence in more than four months. The parliamentary coailtion loyal to anti-US Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said it backed the dissolution of parliament and early elections in a dispute that has seen Iraq's...

A War Hero Is Vindicated–Again Posted By Arnold Ahlert On December 26, 2011 @ 12:20 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | Seven long years after he allegedly committed “premeditated murder,” Iraq war veteran Ilario Pantano, who gave up a comfortable life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to fight for his country following the September 11th attacks, has been thoroughly vindicated. Thus ends a saga highlighted by an unconscionable rush to judgement by the military, and the subsequent trashing of Mr. Pantano’s reputation by leftists who never miss an opportunity to denigrate American soldiers based on nothing more than unproven allegations.

This is an update to last year’s article. The major changes are the elimination of the previously planned new IA divisions, the start of mechanizing of 2 IA divisions, the addition of another corps-level Joint Operational Command, further indications of additional planned mechanized/armor upgrades, and indications of planned wartime redeployments. Forward defense is Iraq’s only real option. Too many key areas are close to the Iranian border. However, Iraq does not have the force to successfully defend Iraq against a conventional invasion. The ISF is trained and equipped for internal security – not external. Iraq is fair game to any...