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BAGHDAD -- Iraq's fractious parliament squeezed its abrasive speaker out of a job Tuesday and authorized non-U.S. foreign troops to stay in the country for another half-year, a pair of high-stakes moves in its final session of 2008.The resignation of Sunni speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani capped a long-running power struggle with Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers and even members of his own party. Lawmakers applauded his announcement, quickly approved it, then passed a measure allowing Britain's 4,000 troops and several smaller contingents from other countries to stay through July. "I do believe that I was faithful to doing good work," al-Mashhadani said...

Iraq parliament passes U.S. security pact Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:12am EST By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament approved a landmark security pact with the United States Thursday that paves the way for U.S. forces to withdraw by the end of 2011. The deal, which parliament linked after days of fractious negotiations to a series of promised political reforms and a public referendum next year, brings in sight an end to the U.S. military presence that began with the 2003 invasion. Lawmakers in Iraq's 275-seat parliament passed the deal with a majority of 149 out of 198 present,...

The Iraqi cabinet, in a near-unanimous vote, have approved the security agreement with the US that will keep our forces in that country until the end of 2011. The decision of the 37-member cabinet, essentially a microcosm of the Parliament, is expected to be a good indicator of whether the agreement will pass. The assembly has not yet announced the date of its vote, but it is scheduled to go into recess on Nov. 24.The draft approved Sunday requires coalition forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by the summer of 2009 and from the country by the end...

Bush lauds Iraqi reconciliationMANAMA, Bahrain — President Bush yesterday praised the Iraqi parliament for passing a reconciliation law, an action seen as undercutting Democrats' criticism of his Iraq policy. "It's an important step toward reconciliation," Mr. Bush said of the law that will allow past members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party to re-enter government posts... continue Economic boost gives hope to IraqisHouse prices on the up and increased banking business are not readily associated with Iraq. Yet as Humphrey Hawksley reports, there are entrepreneurs who see good times in the horizon... continue Sorry, Barack, You’ve lost Iraq....In remarks to the...

Those who claim that the surge strategy in Iraq has paid no dividends because it hasn't met Congressional benchmarks may wish to skip to the next post. The Iraqi National Assembly has passed one of the two most critical benchmarks that the American government had pressed for Baghdad to adopt, the de-Baathification reform that will allow Sunnis to once again enter government jobs: Iraq's parliament adopted legislation Saturday on the reinstatement of former Baath party supporters to government jobs, a benchmark sought by the United States as a key step toward national reconciliation. The voting was carried out by a...

Iraq's parliament adopted legislation Saturday on the reinstatement of thousands of former Baath party supporters to government jobs, a key benchmark sought by the United States as a step toward national reconciliation. The bill was approved by a unanimous show of hands on each of the law's 30 clauses. Titled the Accountability and Justice law, it seeks to relax restrictions on the rights of members of Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Baath party to fill government posts. It is also designed to reinstate thousands of Baathists in government jobs from which they had been dismissed because of their ties to the party....

Baghdad: The Iraqi parliament is preparing to debate controversial draft laws on oil and gas, accountability, justice, resources and the provinces. According to Salim Abdullah, a member in the Sunni Accord Front, the parliament will approve the Accountability and Justice Laws concerning the return of the Baathists to senior administrative and military positions, in addition to the Provinces Law that will regulate this week's provincial elections that is a significant step towards forming federal regions in Iraq. Abdullah added: "The Oil and Gas and the Resources Laws will be subjected to some [amendments and] yet it is likely that the...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament on Monday shrugged off U.S. criticism and adjourned for a month, as key lawmakers declared there was no point waiting any longer for the prime minister to deliver Washington-demanded benchmark legislation for their vote. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the final three-hour session without a quorum present and declared lawmakers would not reconvene until Sept. 4. That date is just 11 days before the top U.S. military and political officials in Iraq must report to Congress on American progress in taming violence and organizing conditions for sectarian reconciliation. The recess, coupled with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney makes an unannounced visit to Baghdad to press reconciliation among rival factions. MORE...

(August 11, 2006)—Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was being treated Friday evening in the emergency room of Providence Health Center in Waco. Sheehan, who has been on a liquids-only diet for 37 days as part of a fast in protest of the war, was described as being gaunt and pale as she arrived at the hospital. An assistant said Sheehan, who flew to Central Texas after a trip with other activists to Jordan to meet with members of Iraq’s new parliament, was being treated for exhaustion. Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey died in Iraq in 2004 while serving with Fort Hood’s...

ALARM - Opening of the inaugural session of the new Iraqi Parliament BAGHDAD - the Iraqi Parliament elected on December 15 opened Thursday its first session in Baghdad in the medium of imposing safety measures, according to correspondents' of AFP.

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 10/1/02 - Congressmen in Iraqi parliament, Traitors in Basra, Zadran taken near Gardez, Kabul, minor explosion, Kandahar, Nablus, Ramallah BREAKING: Congressmen in Iraqi parliament, BREAKING: Traitors in Basra, BREAKING: Zadran taken near Gardez, BREAKING: Kabul, minor explosion, Kandahar, Nablus Ramallah ========= Basra, Iraq ========= BREAKING: The Armies of Good take out a site which painted surveillance aircraft. BREAKING: In Basra, Iraq, at the Abu Flous water treatment plant, Thompson (D-CA), David E. Bonior (D-MI) and Jim McDermott (D-WA), find new ways to bad mouth the USA as they spout Iraqi PR that...