US defense secretary: Turkey won't invade Iraq

Iran closes all border crossings with Iraqi Kurdistan region

"Iran closed all its five outlets on the borders with the Kurdistan region," Jamal Abdullah told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
A presidential statement on Saturday read that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani sent a message of "discontent" to U.S. Ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker and the Multi-National Forces (MNF) commander in Baghdad General David Petraeus, in which he indicated that Iran threatened to close the borders with Kurdistan if the arrested Iranian citizen was not released.

The Boys from Baghdad: Iraqi Commandos Trained by U.S. Contractor

Michael John, a spokesperson for USIS, told CorpWatch that the company is still under contract with the Pentagon for ERU training, but says that the support is provided strictly as part of training. “We are in a training and not in an operational capacity. The National Police Support Team (NPST) operates under the jurisdiction of Iraq's Ministry of Interior and the U.S. Department of Defense.”

Dozens of interviews conducted by CorpWatch with high-ranking military and government officials over the past 12 months suggest that even at the level of Petreaus’s staff, few appeared to know the specific role and scope of ERU activity. What is clear is that the ERU is just one of at least six different U.S. “security” training programs worth over $20 billion that a variety of U.S. agencies have provided to the many factions in Iraq. (See accompanying boxes for examples of other programs.)

It is becoming increasingly clear that such training programs may be causing or at least exacerbating civil war. Part of the blame lies within the complex failures of the U.S. occupation and part with the loyalties and skills of the forces recruited into the myriad security training programs that are associated with different ministries and thus with different, and often rival, political factions.

“Of course, they are fucking things up,” Robert Young Pelton, author of “Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror” told CorpWatch. “Because the U.S. is arbitrarily putting weapons and power in the hands of those who choose to fight, rather than those who are in the moral right,”(2) explaining that few who sign up have any previous law enforcement credentials.

The Third Force

The fact that neither the Iraqi army nor the police were able to tackle the growing insurgency became glaringly obvious in April 2004 when violent uprisings exploded across the country. Iraqi soldiers assigned to fight in Fallujah fled the field.(3) A group of Baghdad police, sent to assist U.S. soldiers battling the Mahdi army in Najaf at the same time, also refused to fight.(4)

War Costing $720 Million Each Day, Group Says

The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee, which displayed those statistics on large banners in cities nationwide Thursday and Friday.

Excellent rap

Attacks on supply convoys protected by private security companies in Iraq have more than tripled as the U.S. government depends more on mercenaries

BAGHDAD � Attacks on supply convoys protected by private security companies in Iraq have more than tripled as the U.S. government depends more on armed civilian guards to secure reconstruction and other missions.

There were 869 such attacks from the beginning of June 2006 to the end of May this year. For the preceding 12 months, there were 281 attacks.

Deaths and injuries increased to 206 from 157 during that same time, according to the Army Corps of Engineers' Logistics Movement Control Center. Most of those convoys carry U.S.-funded reconstruction supplies for the Iraqi government.

Guarding convoys is one part of the work in Iraq done by private companies, jobs that were once done by the military. Private firms also protect diplomats and staff checkpoints at U.S. military facilities.

The Private Security Company Association of Iraq, a trade group, estimates there are about 30,000 security company employees, of which 3,000 to 5,000 are Westerners. About 15,000 are Iraqis, and the rest are other foreigners.

"We will never go to war in the future without civilian assistance," because the active military lacks the people for the job, said Jack Holly, logistics director for the Army Corps of Engineers' Gulf Region Division.

Powell Tells Of Dysfunctional White House, ‘We Weren’t Aware Of The Advice Cheney Was Giving’

Condi's Crackpot Diplomacy

Rice said that Iraq was and continued to be a very dangerous place, adding that US troops were facing danger at the time Zapatero withdrew the Spanish troops. She said the US should have been advised beforehand to prepare for such a move.