Iraq analysis

[Al-khiyal]

Christian leaders from the United States lamented the war in Iraq and apologised for their government's current foreign policy during the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil, which ended Thursday.

"We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights," the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, the moderator of the U.S. Conference for the WCC, told fellow delegates from around the world.

Kishkovsky is the rector of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Sea Cliff, New York, and is an officer in the Orthodox Church of America.

Taking an unusual stand among U.S. Christian leaders, the United States Conference for the World Council of Churches (WCC) criticised Pres. George W. Bush's actions in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"We are citizens of a nation that has done much in these years to endanger the human family and to abuse the creation," says the statement endorsed by the most prominent Protestant Christian churches on the Council.

"Our leaders turned a deaf ear to the voices of church leaders throughout our nation and the world, entering into imperial projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of our own national interests. Nations have been demonised and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous...."

U.S. Christian leaders apologise for Iraq war

[Al-khiyal]

Pentagon report: Insurgent attacks hit postwar high

Bush admits Iraq in "serious situation"

[Al-khiyal]

...It does not feel like civil war because Sunnis and Shia have been showing solidarity these last few days in a big way. I don't mean the clerics or the religious zealots or the politicians- but the average person. Our neighborhood is mixed and Sunnis and Shia alike have been outraged with the attacks on mosques and shrines. The telephones have been down, but we've agreed upon a very primitive communication arrangement. Should any house in the area come under siege, someone would fire in the air three times. If firing in the air isn't an option, then someone inside the house would have to try to communicate trouble from the rooftop...

Volatile days...

'Riverbend' is 26 years old and lives with her parents and siblings in Baghdad. She studied at the University of Baghdad and worked as a programmer and network expert for a small software company, a job which she lost immediately after the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In October last year she won a Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage for her consistently brilliant writing and the judging panel noted:

Baghdad Burning. Girl Blog from Iraq, The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, New York, 2005. Published in the UK by Marion Boyars Publishers, London, 2005. Riverbend, a young Iraqi woman, writes an Internet diary, using a pseudonym. Her commanding gift for observation, her intelligence and her extraordinary language skills make her account of the life of a normal Iraqi family, which has also been published in book form as Baghdad Burning, one of the most uniquely critical documents of life in this abused country under the conditions of the war and the US military occupation.

[Al-khiyal]

Former CIA analyst a and presidential advisor Ray McGovern does not rule out Western involvement in this week's Askariya mosque bombing in light of previous false flag operations that have advanced hidden agendas of the ruling élite....

Former CIA analyst: Western intelligence may be behind Iraq mosque bombing

[Al-khiyal]

Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media....

Toll in Iraq's deadly surge: 1,300

[Al-khiyal]

Shi'ite militias roam free despite curfew, occupy Sunni mosques

Sunnis organizing to combat Shi'ites

Analysts see Lebanonization of Iraq in crystal ball

Civil war fears persist in tense Baghdad

Tanks to patrol Baghdad streets

[Al-khiyal]

Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by death squads working from the Ministry of the Interior, the United Nations' outgoing human rights chief in Iraq has revealed...

And now come the death squads