contributions

U.S. military auditors have criticized construction giant Halliburton for the way it does business in Iraq, concerns amplified by former employees who are alleging financial abuses in the U.S.-occupied country.
"In our opinion, the contractor’s billing system is inadequate in part," said the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) in a report made available Tuesday by California Representative Henry Waxman.
"Our examination disclosed several deficiencies in KBR’s billing system, resulting (…)

Chris Shumway, The NewStandard.
Sexualized violence and harassment of women is a widespread problem within the US armed services, but according to a government investigation and testimony from numerous female soldiers who have been raped, assaulted and harassed by male soldiers, the Pentagon’s response has been woefully inadequate.
The findings come at a time when new evidence suggests that US military personnel raped and sexually abused Iraqi women detained at Abu Ghraib prison and (…)

Well-publicized images of U.S. soldiers torturing and humiliating male Iraqi prisoners may be overshadowing evidence gathered by several human rights groups and Pentagon investigators indicating U.S. military personnel have raped and sexually abused Iraqi women held at Abu Ghraib prison and other detention facilities.
Amal Kadham Swadi, an Iraqi attorney representing women detainees, told The Guardian she believes that sexualized violence and abuse committed by U.S. soldiers against female (…)

With international attention focused on the impending transfer of power in Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority is committing billions of dollars to ill-conceived projects just before it dissolves, according to a new briefing by the Open Society Institute’s Iraq Revenue Watch Project. The briefing, Iraqi Fire Sale: CPA Giving Away Oil Revenue Billions Before Transition, says that the U.S.-controlled Program Review Board in charge of managing Iraq’s finances recently approved the (…)

by Naomi Klein
In Baghdad, every encounter we had was a bit like going through customs.
"American?" was the inevitable first question.
"No, no, Canadian," our over-eager reply.
Sometimes our word wasn’t good enough and our interrogators wanted proof.
We’d pull out our passports for inspection.
On their faces, you could often see a cloud of rage pass over. Women would sometimes let themselves smile. Kids would stop acting like mini-commandos and run off and play. (…)

The abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail came about with the introduction of methods used at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba that treated detainees like dogs,’’ Brigadier General Janis Karpinski said in an interview with the BBC.
The 51-year-old commander was in charge of the military police that ran the Baghdad prison when the abuse scandal erupted in April with the publication of photographs showing Iraqi detainees stripped naked being humiliated and maltreated. (…)

Dan Murphy, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
AMMAN, JORDAN, June 16, 2004 – A year ago, he was the man who could be president of the new Iraq. For decades, Ahmed Chalabi had crafted and pursued a vision - an exile’s dream - of ousting Saddam Hussein with Washington’s help. Now, Mr. Chalabi has fallen far from the graces of his American backers. His home and office in Baghdad were raided by coalition forces, and he is excluded from Iraq’s transitional government.
But sources (…)

Ibrahim Ebeid, al-moharer
The Iraqi National Resistance considers itself to be the legitimate authority, certainly not those who were appointed by Washington and London. The American Administration is desperately trying to exit from the accelerated crisis that it trapped itself into. The Resolution that was adopted by the Security Council will not help calming down the deteriorating situation in Iraq. It will strengthen the Resistance and its determination to expel the invaders, liberate (…)

by NORM DIXON
On August 18, 2002, the New York Times carried a front-page story headlined, "Officers say U.S. aided Iraq despite the use of gas". Quoting anonymous US "senior military officers", the NYT "revealed" that in the 1980s, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan covertly provided "critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq (…)

Matthew Tempest and agencies
The Fire Brigades Union today voted to disaffiliate from Labour, making it the second trade union to split from the party this year.
At a stormy session at the firefighters’ union annual conference in Southport, members defied their leadership to vote approximately five to one in favour of disaffiliating.
A card vote was also taken which showed a vote in favour by 35,105 to 14,611.
Earlier this year Labour moved to disaffiliate the RMT rail union, after (…)