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BAGHDAD — On April 18, American and British officials from a secretive unit called the Force Strategic Engagement Cell flew to Jordan to try to persuade one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals — the commander of the final defense of Baghdad in 2003 — to return home to resume efforts to make peace with the new Iraq. But the Iraqi commander, Lt. Gen. Raad Majid al-Hamdani, rebuffed them. After a year of halting talks mediated by the Americans, he said, he concluded that Iraq’s leader, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, simply was not interested in reconciliation. The American appeal —...

Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry, some ranking as high as general, have been arrested in an alleged secret scheme to reinstate Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, the New York Times reported Thursday. The raids took place over the past three days and were carried out by an elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the report said. The arrests included four generals, one of whom, Gen. Ahmed Abu Raqeef, is the ministry’s director of internal affairs.

Saddam and the Third Reich Few people realize that the Baath party was actually formed upon the principles and organizational structure of the Nazi party. Iraq, because of its oil and hatred of Jews, was an important battleground between the Axis and Allied powers in World War II. Nazi propaganda was broadcast throughout Baghdad, and Iraqis often went on rampages against Jews throughout the war. One of the most ardent Nazi supporters during WWII was named Khairallah Talfah. Talfah was Saddam's uncle. After the war, many of the key Iraqi Nazi supporters, all of whom evaded prosecution, wound up involved...

Excerpt - BAGHDAD: An audiotape said to be of Saddam Hussein's deputy said his group will keep fighting until the last foreign soldier withdraws from Iraq, saying the Americans are being defeated. The audiotape purportedly from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was obtained by The Associated Press in Baghdad on Sunday. It was impossible to determine its authenticity, but several Iraqis familiar with al-Douri's voice said they believed it from his. It was also unclear when the audiotape was made but the comments referred to Saddam as a "martyr." He was hanged Dec. 30 for his role in the deaths of more...

What exactly was moved out of Iraq? Two weeks before the war started, Hans Blix presented a report called, Unresolved Disarmament Issues. For those who don’t trust or believe the Bush Administration’s claims about WMD, this report is a much better description of the alleged threat that Saddam’s Regime posed. After the war, the Iraq Survey Group scoured the country looking to answer the Unresolved Disarmament Issues and to assess the threat of WMD posed by Saddam’s regime. Combined, the before and after reports are a little under 1200 pages. The difference between the two-that is to say the Remaining...

AMMAN, Jordan - A prominent Iraqi Sunni leader said Friday that the insurgency in Iraq could end if the U.S. showed determination to stop the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite militias there. "The Americans must act seriously and abolish those militias, confiscate their weapons, arrest their criminals and at the same time stop the Iranian influence which is penetrating all of Iraq, including the government," said Sheik Majeed al-Gaood, a prominent tribal leader in Anbar province, the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Al-Gaood is a leading member of a Sunni family that plays a major role in tribal politics in Anbar....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MTdJcl5CJA to download video use capture software such as... http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Download-Managers/VDownloader.shtml

On the surface there would seem to be little to unite the Aryan racialists of the neo-Nazi movement with the terrorists of radical Islam. To the neo-Nazis, Muslims are almost all members of ``inferior`` races; and to the Islamic terrorists, the neo-Nazis are almost without exception either atheists or members of fringe quasi-Christian sects. But the reality is that there has been close cooperation between Muslim extremists and Fascists ever since the founding of the Nazi movement in the 1920`s. For all of their differences, Muslim extremists and Nazis have always been united by a common group of beliefs and...

Department of Political Science Najah National University The aim of this paper is to investigate the development of the Iraqi oil industry between 1914 and 1982. This will entail a survey:' Iraq's relations with Western oil companies, its role within OPEC, its involvement in the Middle Eastern arena, and its domestic politics. Emphasis will be placed on the evolution of what is today called the Iraqi Petroleum Company against the background of these other developments. Over time, the general trend discerned is one:-: increasing nationalization of oil production, the extent of which -' determined by internal, regional, and global circumstances....

MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION - NORTH 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION TIKRIT, IRAQ (FOB SPEICHER) APO AE 09363 April 2, 2006 Release A060402c Insurgents killed during failed attacks TIKRIT, Iraq – Four insurgent gunmen were killed and another wounded after two failed attacks against Iraqi and Task Force Band of Brothers Soldiers near Balad April 1. Three gunmen attacked an Iraqi Army unit east of Balad the morning of April 1. The Iraqi Soldiers returned fire, breaking up the attack and trapping the gunmen in a nearby house. A patrol from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division arrived and came under...

The documents of pre-war Iraq were published this morning on the Pentagon website, I did a quick search and I found a very interesting document written in Arabic and not yet translated to English. I did the translation and I found the following: This document is a letter written by a member of Saddam Intelligence apparatus (Al Mukabarat) on 9/15/2001 (shortly after 9/11/2001) where he addressed it to someone higher up and he wrote about a conversation between an Iraqi intelligence source and a Taliban Afghani Consul. In the conversation the Afghani Consul spoke of a relationship between Iraq and...

ANKARA (Reuters) - An Italian Roman Catholic priest was shot dead in his church in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon on Sunday, police said. They gave no more details, but CNN Turk television said police were looking for a young man aged about 17 years old seen fleeing the scene. CNN Turk showed a small crowd of onlookers near the Santa Maria church where the priest was killed. The state Anatolian news agency identified the dead man as Andrea Santaro, aged 60. Other Turkish media said he had been in Turkey about five years. Anatolian quoted Trabzon governor...

Syria backs a nuclear Iran By Patrick Bishop in Damascus (Filed: 20/01/2006) Syria yesterday backed Iran in its nuclear confrontation with the West as their leaders met in Damascus in a defiant show of solidarity. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar al-Assad The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, welcomed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and said the Iranian leader had the right to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. In turn, Mr Ahmadinejad asserted his host's right to freedom from foreign interference. Both men face confontations with the United Nations Security Council. The West is pushing for the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Teheran to...

Sunni Arabs gain American backing in negotiations to form a new government.BAGHDAD – One month after Iraq's Dec. 15 election, a shift is afoot that will probably weaken Shiite political clout as the country's factions enter serious negotiations to form a new government. Increasingly, the US is throwing its weight in Iraq behind Sunni Arabs, about 20 percent of the country, to ensure they are part of a new coalition government. Analysts say the US is convinced reconciliation with Sunni Arabs will help stop the insurgency. There is also an American unease with the growing influence of Iran on Iraq's...

Veteran Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, widely regarded as the architect of his government's Lebanon policy before its troop pullout in April, announced his resignation on Friday. "I have decided to resign," he told the Dubai-based satellite television Al-Arabiya in an interview from Paris. Khaddam first asked to resign at a congress of Syria's ruling Baath party in June, but there had been no word since on whether President Bashar al-Assad had accepted the resignation. At the time, he criticised Syrian foreign policy leading up to the withdrawal from Lebanon after a 29-year deployment under international pressure over...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein told the judge at his trial Monday that "I am not afraid of execution" during an unruly court session in which the first witness took the stand and testified that the former president's agents carried out random arrests, torture and killings. The outburst was one of several by Saddam or his co-defendants at the trial that also saw a brief walkout by his defense lawyers. At one point, Saddam appeared to threaten the judge, saying: "When the revolution of the heroic Iraq arrives, you will be held accountable." Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin replied: "This...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2005 – Coalition forces captured the leader of the New Baath Party in Diyala province, Iraq, during a Nov. 9 patrol, officials announced today. Coalition members apprehended Hamid Sharki Shadid along with physical evidence at his home. Shadid is a former member of the Baath Party in Diyala province and is suspected of being responsible for all insurgent Baath Party activities in that area. Coalition forces believe he can provide crucial information on the whereabouts of former Staff Gen. Jamal Karki, a suspected Baathist insurgent, and Abd-al-Baqi al-Saadun, who has been a fugitive since the fall of...

An interesting note posted on a jihadi web forum complements a recent analysis by U.S. Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner on the course of the insurgency in Iraq. In an interview published by The Washington Post on September 28, leading military intelligence officer Gen. Zahner neatly defined the events in Iraq as "an insurgency hijacked by a terrorist campaign." In Zahner's view, which marks a shift in perception by the U.S. military command, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq group has supplanted Iraqis loyal to the deposed president Saddam Hussein as the insurgency's "driving element." Instead, the Saddam Hussein loyalists (former...

Tariq Aziz, once Saddam Hussein's most trusted lieutenant, has agreed to testify against the ousted dictator during his forthcoming trial for war crimes, according to his lawyer and American officials. In return for his co-operation, Aziz, 69, Iraq's foreign minister during the Gulf war and deputy prime minister throughout Saddam's 24-year rule, will have the most serious charges against him dropped and be allowed to spend his dotage in exile. The outline plea agreement, under which he will plead guilty to minor charges, was reached after more than two years of delicate negotiations during which Aziz also revealed important intelligence...

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is scheduled to visit the United States in November for a round of meetings with President Bush and other high ranking US officials. As the representative of the Yemeni people, Saleh deserves a great deal of respect and hospitality. Yet it has become increasingly apparent that the regime, under the total domination of President Saleh, is engaged in a wide variety of criminal activities to the detriment of regional stability and the Yemeni people themselves. Drug Smuggling: One regionally destabilizing regime activity is drug smuggling. A variety of illegal drugs are smuggled via the Indian...