Siriel-Media

IRAQ: Elections Bring Joy and Uncertainty	more
WASHINGTON, Mar 8 (IPS) - 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.
IRAQ: Secular Candidates Have Their Best Chance	more
WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (IPS) - 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.
IRAQ: Are Kurds' Days of Kingmaking Over?	more
WASHINGTON, Mar 2 (IPS) - 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.
U.S.: Blackwater's Migraines Multiply	more
NEW YORK, Feb 28 (IPS) - Legal headaches are growing exponentially for the security firm formerly known as Blackwater ? once the darling of the military-industrial community.
JORDAN: Where Iraqi Women Are Also Fathers	more
AMMAN, Feb 28 (IPS) - 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.
Q&A: UN Chief in Iraq Cautiously Optimistic About Elections	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (IPS) - 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.
IRAQ: 'Disgraced Soldier' Fights Trauma With Documentary	more
LONDON, Feb 19 (IPS) - 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.
POLITICS: U.S. Ambassador Accuses Iran of Role in Iraq Election Ban	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (IPS) - 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.
RIGHTS: Mideast and North Africa Cited for Press Abuses	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (IPS) - 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.
IRAQ: Govt Expels Former Blackwater Contractors	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (IPS) - 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.
U.S.: Court-Martial for Soldier Who Wrote Angry Song about Stop-Loss	more
MARFA, Texas, Feb 10 (IPS) - 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.
AFGHANISTAN: Iraq Lessons Ignored at Kabul Power Plant	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (IPS) - 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.
IRAQ: Allegations of Fraud Scheme at Agility of Kuwait ? Part 2	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (IPS) - 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.
U.S.: Obama Calls for More Development, Counterinsurgency Aid	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (IPS) - 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.
IRAQ: Agility Attempts to Vault Fraud Charges - Part 1	more
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (IPS) - 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.
IRAQ: Kurdish Leader Voices Indirect Support for Mutlak	more
WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (IPS) - The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, has expressed indirect support for the removal of Salih al-Mutlak and possibly other Sunni Arab politicians from a list of candidates banned from running in the March parliamentary elections.
POLITICS: Iraqi Body Softens Stance on Banned Candidates	more
WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (IPS) - A decision by Iraq's controversial Accountability and Justice Commission (AJC) Monday to remove 59 candidates from a list of over 500 candidates banned from running in the March parliamentary elections appears to be a sign that the AJC is softening its stance following widespread domestic opposition and a visit by U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden to Baghdad last week.
U.S.: Suicide Rate Surged Among Veterans	more
WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (IPS) - Suicides among United States military veterans ballooned by 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to new statistics released by the Veterans Affairs (VA) department.
IRAQ: Will Elections Bring Stability, or More Turmoil?	more
WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (IPS) - Iraq's upcoming parliamentary elections are widely considered a barometre of the country's progress and march toward stability, but they could also have a serious destabilising impact, as the U.S. prepares for a major reduction of its troops by August.
US: Whistleblower Psychiatrist Warns of Soldier on Soldier Violence	more
MARFA, Texas, Dec 7 (IPS) - Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist who was hired last January to treat Marines returning from war who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other acute mental health problems borne from their deployments, fears more soldier-on-soldier violence without radical changes in the current soldier health care system.
CORRUPTION: Afghanistan, Iraq Near Bottom of Transparency Index	more
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (IPS) - Despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and other countries to improve governance in Afghanistan and Iraq, the two countries remain among the world's most corrupt nations, according to the latest edition of Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
U.S.: Army Underreporting Suicides, Says GI Advocacy Group	more
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov 16 (IPS) - According to a soldiers' advocacy group at Fort Hood, the U.S. base where an army psychiatrist has been charged with killing 13 people and wounding 30 in a Nov. 5 rampage, the official suicide figures provided by the Army are "definitely" too low.
RIGHTS: Iraqi Minorities Dying Over Turf War	more
NEW YORK, Nov 11 (IPS) - Iraqi minority groups are caught up in a power struggle between the country's Arab-dominated central government and the Kurdish-controlled regional government over the oil-rich Nineveh province - and they are paying with their lives, according Human Rights Watch.
U.S.: "War Comes Home" with Ft. Hood Shootings	more
PHOENIX, Arizona, Nov 6 (IPS) - While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist is suspected of killing 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident "brings the war home".
U.S.: "War Comes Home" with Ft. Hood Shootings	more
PHOENIX, Arizona, Nov 6 (IPS) - While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist is suspected of killing 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident "brings the war home".
RIGHTS-US: Lawsuit Probes Role of Psychologists in Terror War	more
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (IPS) - The state board responsible for licensing - and disciplining - psychologists in Louisiana is accused of turning a blind eye to serious allegations of abuse against one of its members, including complicity in beatings, religious and sexual humiliation, rape threats and painful body positions during his service as a senior advisor on interrogations for the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.
IRAQ: U.S. Diplomatic Adviser's Troubling Role in Oil Politics	more
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (IPS) - In 2003, U.S. diplomatist Peter Galbraith resigned at the end of a distinguished, 24-year government career. Over the years that followed, he worked as a contract-based adviser to leaders in Iraq's Kurdish community, while also arguing passionately in public media that Iraq's Kurds should be given maximum independence from Baghdad - including full control over any new sources of oil.
IRAQ: Stormy Times as U.S. Withdraws	more
WASHINGTON, Sep 5 (IPS) - Political violence in Iraq killed 456 Iraqis in August, the highest monthly death toll since July 2008. And with the U.S. showing no sign it plans to reverse the troop withdrawal that is now well underway, numerous struggles for power are shaping up inside Iraq.
RIGHTS-US: CIA Probe Should Go Farther, Groups Say	more
NEW YORK, Aug 25 (IPS) - Attorney General Eric Holder's decision Monday to investigate whether interrogators from the Central Intelligence Agency or its contractors violated any federal laws in applying "enhanced interrogation techniques" to detainees in U.S. custody overseas triggered immediate criticism from human rights advocates and appeared to widen the partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats.
RIGHTS-US: Justice to Probe Detainee Abuses	more
NEW YORK, Aug 24 (IPS) - The issue of detainee interrogation and abuse ? lately eclipsed by the debate over U.S. health care reform ? bubbled back to the surface Monday in a number of headline-making developments.