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WASHINGTON — The Iraqi defector whose claims that Saddam Hussein’s government had biological weapons became part of the Bush administration’s justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq has admitted that he fabricated his story. The defector, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who was code-named “Curveball” by the Central Intelligence Agency and German intelligence officials, told the British newspaper The Guardian on Tuesday that he had concocted his tale that Iraq was hiding mobile bioweapons laboratories. He did so, he said, in hopes that his lies would lead to the eventual overthrow of the Iraqi ruler.

Congressman told FBI he asked for -- and got -- free home upgrades ### Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko gave U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez free upgrades on a riverfront town house after the congressman asked for them, Gutierrez told the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Gutierrez's comments to federal agents in a previously undisclosed 2008 interview contradict what the congressman told the Sun-Times in 2006 about the purchase. "I walked in with my wife -- as any other consumer could have -- and purchased the unit at the listed price, with no considerations," the Northwest Side congressman said then,...

The suicide bomber who blew himself up yesterday was an Iraqi man who graduated from a British university. Whitehall sources confirm that Taimour-Al-Abdaly, a 28-year-old man who lived in southern Sweden, was the owner of the car that exploded in central Stockholm last night. His Facebook profile lists him as having studied a BSc in sports therapy at the University of Bedfordshire in 2004. Swedish police confirmed that the two explosions that killed one person and injured two more, causing panic among Christmas shoppers, were a terrorist attack. They said last night's explosions were the result of "terror crimes". "We...

A survey by the Kurdistan Minstiry of Health shows that 41 percent of women have gone under the practise of female genuital mutilation (FGM). The survey was carried out in July this year. The results of the survey were announced during a campaign to raise awareness on violence against women in Kurdistan earlier this week. Part of the campaign has focused on FGM. The survey by the government shows that mothers are the main party responsible for forcing their daughters experience the painful ritual and then grandmothers and fathers.

The suspected ringleader of the failed bomb plot has been named as 'brilliant neurologist' Mohammed Asha, 26. Saudi-born Asha, 26, was arrested with his 27-year-old wife, who was in traditional Muslim dress, on the M6 in Cheshire on Saturday night. They were in a car with their two-year-old son when police were believed to have been alerted to Dr Asha's car after his number plate flashed up on an automatic recognition camera. He is believed to being questioned over possible links to the two Mercedes packed with gas canisters, petrol and nails found in the West End on Friday. The...

Three suspected Al Qaeda members were arrested Thursday morning in what Norwegian and U.S. officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans in New York and England. The three men, whose names were not released, had been under surveillance for more than a year. Two of the men were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, according to Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's Police Security Service. She declined to give further details of the locations. Kristiansen said one of the men was a 39-year-old Norwegian of Uighur origin, who had lived in Norway since 1999. The other suspects...

May 29, 2008 By Andrew Walden (Hawai'i Free Press) Nadhmi Auchi, seen here with the Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich (middle) at a 2004 Chicago dinner in Auchi's honor arranged by Antonin Rezko (potentially, right)[1]. All three men have been convicted of corruption related charges (Auchi 2003, Rezko 2008, Blagojevich 2009).[2] “A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser (dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko) just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi,...

KIRKUK - Fridays are considered a day of rest for Iraqis, when they traditionally spread out blankets to enjoy good food and company.  U.S. Soldiers were invited to join their Iraqi counterparts for Friday relaxation during a picnic here at Dibbis Dam, May 7.Leaders of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, out of Fort Bliss, Texas, enjoy a picnic with their Iraqi Army partners at Dibbis Dam, near Kirkuk, Iraq, May 7, 2010. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Jessica Luhrs. The day was filled with food, jokes, stories and no business, according to 1st Lt. Ali Mohammed Ahmed,...

American-backed Iraqi forces have killed the country’s two senior terrorists in the Al-Qaeda organization, the United States confirmed Monday. American officials said the deaths are a “potentially devastating blow” to the international terror network. The terrorists were identified as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who killed in a house after troops stormed it approximately six miles southwest of the home town of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

SNIPPET: "The following Top Ten list is ordered according relative importance, both to the jihadis and to those who monitor their online activities, with preference given to sites which consistently offer up content that is unique to the particular site and community of users."

An Iraqi-born yob who spat on a World War II hero's medals on Remembrance Day yesterday escaped jail. Serwan Abdullah, 23, targeted Timothy House while he was wearing his late grandfather’s honours after a commemorative parade. Mr House, 44, who was recovering from a broken hip and was also looking after a 91-year-old wheelchair-bound veteran when the attack happened, said he was left ‘outraged and very angry’. Abdullah showed no remorse and told officers he had done ‘nothing wrong’ adding: ‘F*** him and f*** his medals.’ The medals Mr House was wearing were awarded to former paratrooper Company Sgt Major...

An Iraqi doctor encouraged security officers at Brooke Army Medical Center to shoot him earlier this month after telling others that he planned to free accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a federal agent testified Monday. FBI counterterrorism and military intelligence operatives took a hard look at Senan Kahtan Abrahem after he went to Fort Sam Houston on Jan. 6 and approached an information booth at BAMC about seeing Hasan, according to testimony at a bail hearing Monday for Abrahem. Abrahem, an immigrant living in San Antonio, was indicted last week on a federal charge of making a...

Iraqi parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi is warning that Iran is much closer to attaining nuclear capability than most sources, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the US State Department, believe. In fact, he predicts the Iranians could have a nuclear capability - and may announce that they have it - as soon as next month. "We are receiving information which says Iran is so close to producing an atom bomb," Alusi said in an interview earlier this month, the latest in a series of interviews conducted since September. "All the international community, they don't realize how close [the Iranians] are...

BAGHDAD — A preparatory session for the upcoming Conference for Cooperation and Coordination between the Iraqi and Kurdistan Ministries of Interior was held here last week, when MoI and KMoI representatives discussed plans to unify their efforts to fight the insurgency and strengthen the nation of Iraq, Aug. 4 – 5. This was the third series of meetings held between MoI and KMoI since January 2009 to discuss issues of security cooperation. Iraqi Maj. Gen. Waleed Hadawi Khalifa, director general of the MoI Planning and Tracking Directorate, served as overall coordinator for the talks. The Kurdistan General Director of Police,...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces raided a camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group north of Baghdad on Tuesday in a move that ran contrary to U.S. wishes and prompted clashes. Residents of Camp Ashraf claimed the Iraqi troops opened fire and beat people with batons, killing four people. The Iraqi government confirmed authorities had moved into the camp but denied violence was used against the exiles.

Iraqis fleeing violence in their homeland are struggling in America, where they had hoped to make new lives, said a report issued Tuesday ..... "Nearly all of the Iraqis we surveyed had expectations that they would receive better care from a government whose policies had a hand in their upheaval, particularly those who put their lives on the line to work for the U.S. military and government and were targeted as a result," "They deserve better." In 2008, the United States admitted 13,823 refugees from Iraq. Though grateful to be in America, the Iraqis told the refugee experts that they...

An NHS doctor accused of the Glasgow airport attack today admitted planning to set cars on fire to give Britain a "taste of fear". Bilal Abdulla, 29, an Iraqi, said he had wanted the incendiary devices to throw the spotlight back on the devastating effect of war on his homeland. He branded the British government "democratically elected murderers" and said he wanted Muslims to escape oppression and leave Britain. But Abdulla told Woolwich crown court in London that he knew the "horror and terror" of the July 7 attacks and had not wanted to injure or kill anyone. Going into...

The US military has released a senior member of a deadly terror group backed by Iran that has been directly implicated in the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala during a complex operation in early 2007. Laith al Qazali was freed last weekend "as part of a reconciliation effort" as well as an attempt to secure the release of captive British hostages, according to a report in The New York Times. Laith is the brother of Qais Qazali, the commander of the Qazali network, which is better known as the Asaib al Haq, or the League of...

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2009 – In developments this month, the Iraqi air force graduated its first intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircrew members and dedicated three new buildings that will increase its capabilities. The first class of Iraqi Air Force Squadron 87 King Air ISR aircrew members completed their year-long training, which culminated with a graduation ceremony at New Al Muthana Air Base May 17. The Iraqi King Air program, headed up by U.S. Air Force and Navy aircrew instructors, has trained four Iraqi pilots, seven co-pilots and five mission sensor operators. “We are about at the halfway point where we...

FORT POLK, La., May 22, 2009 – Early morning in the combat outpost was like that hour before sun up on a Louisiana frog pond, with rumbling, bullfrog snores and socks stinking like pond muck from days of bathing in boot dust and sweat. Carried on the morning dew, the smell of 40 grimy infantrymen racked out in a room too small for morning vapors best described as weaponized funk. Army 2nd Lt. John J. Griffin leads his platoon in partnership with role-playing Iraqi security forces to provide security to the fictitious town of Suliyah prior to the opening...