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.

IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam
By Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail*
BAGHDAD - Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.
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IRAQ: Elections Bring Joy and Uncertainty
By Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON - The holding of Iraq's third parliamentary elections on Sunday has generated a sense of satisfaction in Washington, but there is a feeling of anxiety about how the post-election negotiation process to form a new government might proceed.
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IRAQ: Secular Candidates Have Their Best Chance
By Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON - As Iraqis go to the polls on Sunday, a key question in the minds of many in Iraq and Washington is whether secular candidates can continue their recent rise and possibly come out as winners.
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IRAQ: Are Kurds' Days of Kingmaking Over?
Analysis by Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON - In the run-up to Iraq's parliamentary elections next week, the once-united Kurds are not only suffering deep fissures but are expected to lose their privileged kingmaker position after the polls.
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U.S.: Blackwater's Migraines Multiply
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Legal headaches are growing exponentially for the security firm formerly known as Blackwater – once the darling of the military-industrial community.
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JORDAN: Where Iraqi Women Are Also Fathers
By Hanan Tabbara*
AMMAN - Back in Najaf, Iraq, Khayzaran and her family lived in a well-kept house. They had two cars and a small orchard. Her children, two girls and three boys, attended school and came home to modest feasts.
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Q&A: UN Chief in Iraq Cautiously Optimistic About Elections
Mohammed A. Salih interviews AD MELKERT, Head of the U.N. Mission in Iraq
WASHINGTON - The improving security situation in Iraq in the recent years has meant more space for the United Nations to play an active role in the country's development in various sectors.
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IRAQ: 'Disgraced Soldier' Fights Trauma With Documentary
By Zack Baddorf*
LONDON - A new documentary ‘Diary of a Disgraced Soldier’ follows the dismissal from the British army of an Iraq war veteran and his battle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) linked to his videographing the brutalising of Iraqi youth by fellow servicemen.
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POLITICS: U.S. Ambassador Accuses Iran of Role in Iraq Election Ban
By Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON - Reiterating accusations of Iranian interference in Iraq's internal affairs, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Wednesday that he was in "100 percent agreement" with remarks by the top U.S. commander in Iraq regarding Iran's involvement in a highly controversial decision that eventually barred over 140 candidates from running in Iraq's parliamentary elections next month.
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RIGHTS: Mideast and North Africa Cited for Press Abuses
By Mohammed A. Salih and Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON - A report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on press freedom around the world in 2009 depicts an especially gloomy situation in the Middle East and North Africa, where authorities continue to use repressive measures to muzzle journalists.
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IRAQ: Govt Expels Former Blackwater Contractors
By Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON - The Iraqi government has ordered hundreds of private security contractors who previously worked for Blackwater Worldwide or its subsidiaries to leave the country within seven days or risk arrest for visa violations, Iraq's interior minister said Wednesday.
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U.S.: Court-Martial for Soldier Who Wrote Angry Song about Stop-Loss
By Dahr Jamail
MARFA, Texas - Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the U.S. Army in Georgia for recording a song that expresses his anger over the Army's stop-loss policy. Now he waits to be shipped to Iraq to face a court martial.
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AFGHANISTAN: Iraq Lessons Ignored at Kabul Power Plant
By Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON - A diesel-fueled power plant, nearing completion just outside Kabul, demonstrates that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its contractors have failed to learn lessons from identical mistakes in Iraq, despite clearly signposted advice from oversight agencies.
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IRAQ: Allegations of Fraud Scheme at Agility of Kuwait – Part 2
By Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON - The Sultan family of Kuwait runs a variety of businesses alleged to be at the heart of a scheme to overcharge the U.S. military by as much as a billion dollars over the last seven years. The company is currently scheduled to face criminal arraignment on Feb. 8 in Atlanta, Georgia.
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U.S.: Obama Calls for More Development, Counterinsurgency Aid
By Jim Lobe and Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama Monday called on Congress to approve major increases over the coming months in global health, development, and counterinsurgency assistance as part of a record 3.8-trillion-dollar 2011 federal budget.
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IRAQ: Agility Attempts to Vault Fraud Charges - Part 1
By Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON - Agility, a Kuwait-based multi-billion-dollar logistics company spawned by the U.S. invasion of Iraq, is scheduled be arraigned on Feb. 8 on criminal charges of overbilling U.S. taxpayers for food supply contracts in the Iraq war zone that were worth more than 8.5 billion dollars.
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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.