Tag: iraq

Iraq and Cuba hit by blackouts amid US pressure and attacks on Iran

Both Iraq and Cuba have been plunged into nationwide blackouts, with the Middle Eastern country’s grid collapsing after a sudden drop in gas supplies to a major power plant in Basra, while the Caribbean island’s outage is being blamed on chronic fuel shortages worsened by the US blockade on Venezuelan oil.

The day before the Iraqi blackout, an Electricity Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying that “incomplete supplies” of gas from neighboring Iran were already affecting power plant operations. Iran has been facing a massive US-Israeli air campaign since Saturday.

A separate power facility also experienced a shutdown in central Salah al-Din province, with local police explicitly denying reports that the station was targeted by an attack, according to the state-run INA news agency.

Iraq relies on Iranian gas for 30-40% of its power generation. The dependence is a direct consequence of decades of foreign intervention in the country. Before the 1991 Gulf War, the grid, though strained by sanctions, largely met demand. The war destroyed 75% of its generating capacity, and the 2003 US-led invasion caused a catastrophic collapse to less than 10% of prior output.

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They Are Still Lying About Iraq

The lack of shame exhibited by the US government as it lies about Iraqi improvised explosive device (IED) attacks that killed thousands of American service members to justify its new war on Iran is breathtaking. President Trump led off his press conference today, the first since the attacks began Saturday morning, with this lie. Trump’s proxies on cable news, in the newspapers and online have been repeating it non-stop.

The lie is essentially that American soldiers were killed and wounded in Iraq at the orders of the Iranians. That the people responsible for blowing up American vehicles and sending home US soldiers in caskets or without body parts were Iranians, not Iraqis. The reality, of course, is that responsibility for those deaths and mutilations belongs to George W. Bush and every politician, general, government official, journalist, pundit and citizen who supported that war. I put myself into that disgraceful camp as someone who twice went voluntarily to that war.

This lie gets recycled whenever the prospect of war with Iran is present. For example, in 2019, the allegation appeared as the US imposed severe sanctions on Iran and labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization (the first time the US government designated a government or a military as a terrorist organization). These actions, following the unilateral abrogation of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran by the US, led to year-long tensions that culminated in the US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who the American government and press labeled as having “American blood on his hands”, and retaliatory Iranian missile attacks on US forces in Iraq.

To begin with, the majority of US service members killed and wounded in the occupation of Iraq were killed by Sunni resistance groups, NOT Shia resistance groups. Sunni groups accounted for more than 80% of American deaths. These Sunni groups did not receive any support from Iran. These Sunni groups, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, did get a great deal of support from persons and institutions throughout Sunni countries in the Middle East, especially from the Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia chief among them. Yet, in Washington, DC’s calculus, these states don’t have the blood on their hands that Iran does, even as 4 out of 5 Americans were killed by Iraqi Sunni groups.

Sunni groups did fight against Shia groups that may have had a relationship with Iran. The Shia groups also fought against each other. Some Shia groups fought against the Americans. The Americans killed and wounded by Shia groups using IEDs were killed and wounded by Iraqis, not Iranians. Yes, there was a small Iranian presence in Iraq, acting as advisors to the Shia groups. However, the Iranian role was dwarfed by organic Iraqi resistance to occupation and sectarian commitments to one side or the other in intra-Iraqi fighting.

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US Again Demands Iraq End Maliki Nomination, Or Else

Iraq’s Coordination Framework is still putting forward Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for prime minister, despite President Trump loudly and repeatedly demand he be withdrawn. The US had reportedly set a deadline of Friday, February 27, to end the candidacy or face unspecified repercussions. What happens next, after the US has attacked Tehran, is anyone’s guess.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because the US had similarly set a “final deadline” for Maliki’s withdrawal last weekend, though that deadline passed with little visible consequence and just more US complaining about Maliki.

With just 24 hours left, the latest deadline doesn’t seem like it’s going to change anything either, with the Framework saying they don’t intend to allow the US to decide who gets to be Iraq’s prime minister.

Furthermore, the indication is that they don’t even intend to hold another meeting on the premiership until next week, well after this deadline will have already passed.

There does not appear to be any other serious candidate being put forward by any part of the Framework, which is the largest bloc in Iraq’s deeply divided parliament.

Maliki served as Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 through 2014. President Trump has insisted he has “insane policies and ideologies” and cannot be allowed to return to office, though again there are no other serious candidates within the Framework who have come forward to replace him with.

Maliki has sought to return to office for years and though his State of Law Party only won about 6% of the seats in last year’s election, he has the support of Kurdish factions, and the largest party within the Framework, that of current Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, has appeared to accept Maliki’s candidacy after Sudani said he doesn’t intend to serve another term.

It’s a recurring theme in Iraq that after their elections forming a coalition government takes quite some time and a lot of negotiation.

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4,700-Year-Old Discovery Reveals Clues to Cult of Ishtar’s Spread Throughout the Ancient World

Hidden beneath an ancient temple in Assur, Iraq, archaeologists have made a discovery that holds potentially crucial evidence for the cult of Ishtar’s origins in the area.

The researchers behind the discovery date the temple’s foundation to between 2896 BCE and 2702 BCE, saying that it provides crucial evidence for the spread of Mesopotamian ritual practice to northern Iraq and urban life at Assur over 4,700 years ago, revealing the growth of cult worship.

The findings were published in The Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Assur’s Ishtar Temple

Assyria was a major Mesopotamian civilization that began as Assur—initially a meager city-state—and eventually expanded into a much larger empire.

The city itself is located on the western bank of the Tigris River, and during the first millennium BCE, the Neo-Assyrian empire became well established, leaving a rich corpus of well-preserved records about these later periods. Yet, earlier records are murkier or nonexistent, leaving Assur’s beginnings shrouded in mystery.

German archaeologist Walter Andrae first excavated the Ishtar Empire between 1903 and 1914.  However, the deepest layers remained covered until the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich’s Assur Excavation Project in 2024. Modern coring technology has enabled archaeologists to access the temple cella.

“The excavators of the Ishtar temple simply didn’t report it, so we assume they didn’t see it,” lead author Mark Altaweel told The Debrief in an email. “The sand is below the last floor level of the temple, so it is possible they just didn’t dig far enough or reach the bedrock. We basically cored until we hit the bedrock.”

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Dick Cheney’s Legacy Is One of Brutal Carnage

On March 15, 2006, the United States was nearly three years into its second Iraq war. After over a decade of brutal sanctions and continuous bombing, in spring 2003, the US had launched a full-scale invasion of the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation. The invasion was a flagrant violation of international law. After toppling Iraq’s Ba’athist government, a former on-again, off-again ally of Washington, the United States and its allies began a protracted military occupation of Iraq. The neocolonial affair was particularly brutal. Such is the nature of seeking to impose your presence by military force on a people who do not wish it and are willing to use force to oppose it.

That day, March 15, soldiers approached the home of Faiz Harrat Al-Majma’ee, an Iraqi farmer . Allegedly they were looking for an individual believed to be responsible for the deaths of two US soldiers and a facilitator for al-Qaeda recruitment in Iraq. In the version told by US troops, someone from the house fired on the approaching soldiers, prompting a twenty-five-minute confrontation. Eventually the soldiers entered the house, killing all of the residents.

This included not just Al-Majma’ee, but his wife; his three children, Hawra’a, Aisha, and Husam, who were between the ages of five months and five years old; his seventy-four-year-old mother, Turkiya Majeed Ali; and two nieces, Asma’a Yousif Ma’arouf and Usama Yousif Ma’arouf, who were five and three years old. An autopsy performed on the deceased “revealed that all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed.” After slaughtering the family execution style, US soldiers called in an air strike, destroying the house. The presumed reason for the bombardment was to cover up evidence of the extrajudicial killings.

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State Department Says US Is Not Withdrawing from Iraq

A US State Department spokesperson told Shafaq News on Wednesday that the US is not withdrawing from Iraq but shifting its military role to a “bilateral relationship” under a deal that will end the mission of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition in the country.

The official made the comment in response to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani saying that Baghdad will only disarm the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a group of mostly Shia militias, including some that are aligned with Iran, once the US-led coalition leaves Iraq.

The Trump administration has been demanding that Iraq disarm the PMF, which was formed in 2014 to fight ISIS and is considered part of Iraq’s security forces. The State Department official speaking to Shafaq said Iraq must dismantle the “Iran-backed militias” and accused the groups of engaging in “violent and destabilizing activities in Iraq.”

“Their actions drain the country’s resources and act against its national interests,” the spokesperson said. Referring to the US plans for its military presence in Iraq, the spokesperson said, “This is not a withdrawal. It is a shift toward a more traditional bilateral relationship in the areas of security and diplomacy.”

Last year, the US and Iraq signed a deal that would end the mission of the US-led coalition in Iraq by September 2026, but at the time of the signing, the Biden administration said that the US was “not withdrawing from Iraq.”

The US has recently withdrawn some military personnel from the country, but the War Department has said fewer than 2,000 US troops will remain. The US is keeping troops at the Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq, at the Erbil Air Base in Iraqi Kurdistan, and a small number of advisors will remain in Baghdad.

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Ex-ISIS Envoy Who Killed Americans In Iraq To Be Hosted At White House This Month

President Donald Trump is set to host Syria’s self-appointed interim leader later this month for talks in Washington, marking the first ever visit by a Syrian head of state to the US capitol. Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who once fought alongside foreign fighters while killing American soldiers in Iraq, will enjoy his red carpet reception in Washington on November 10.

This will also mark the first time a former ISIS member will be hosted in the Oval Office, an absurdity which would have been hard to believe a mere decade ago. But the US-Saudi-Israel axis reached its regime change goal in Damascus, which overthrew the secular Arab nationalist leader Bashar al-Assad, which resulted in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) taking over.

The HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who was even earlier this year still on the US terrorism list, quickly reverted to his birth name of Ahmed al-Sharaa. The US had promptly removed the $10 million bounty on his head just before President Trump met with him in Riyadh last May.

“President Ahmed al-Sharaa will be at the White House at the start of November,” Syria’s foreign minister said in speech in Bahrain. “Of course, this is a historic visit. It is the first visit by a Syrian president to the White House in more than 80 years.”

“There will be many issues on the table, starting with the lifting of sanctions and opening of a new chapter between the United States and Syria. We want to establish a very strong partnership between the two countries.”

One area of proposed cooperation is in fighting terrorism, ironically enough, and the US and Syria under Jolani are expected to sign an agreement joining a US-led international coalition against ISIS during the visit, which is somewhat laughable given ISIS patches have recently been seen among HTS ranks.

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Pentagon Confirms US Troops Will Stay in Iraq After Drawdown

The US Department of War has confirmed that US troops will remain in Iraq indefinitely under a deal signed with the Iraqi government last year that called for an end to the US-led anti-ISIS mission in the country.

According to Stars & Stripes, a senior Pentagon official has said that the US is slightly reducing its troop presence, bringing the total number of US military personnel from 2,500 to under 2,000. The majority of the remaining troops will be based in Erbil in the northern Kurdistan region.

The War Department official said that US troops were in the process of leaving the Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. The US will be keeping some military personnel in Baghdad who will be tasked with “bilateral security cooperation.”

While the US is keeping troops in Iraq, the official claimed that the drawdown was ending the “forever war” in the country. “First, we’re ending the forever war in Iraq,” the official said.

“Second, we’re shifting the burden of responsibility for combating ISIS in Iraq, from US and coalition forces to our Iraqi partners. We’ve trained them for a decade and they have the capability to counter ISIS and they have the will. And third, high credit to the Iraqis themselves,” the official added.

The Pentagon is also consolidating its presence in neighboring Syria, where it plans to reduce troop numbers to under 1,000. It has closed some bases in northeastern Syria, handing them over to the US-backed Kurdish-led SDF. The majority of the US troops in Syria are expected to be based at al-Tanf Garrison in the south, which is situated where the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan converge.

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Tulsi Gabbard Reveals Deep State Operative James Clapper’s Russia Hoax Wasn’t His First Intel Scam — He “Manufactured” the WMD Lie That Led to the Iraq War

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused former Obama DNI James Clapper of being a serial political manipulator, exposing that the Russia Collusion Hoax wasn’t his first rodeo in deception.

Gabbard unloaded on disgraced former DNI James Clapper during her appearance on the Pod Force One podcast with Miranda Devine of the New York Post.

Gabbard is accusing the longtime Deep State operator of not one, but TWO of the most catastrophic intelligence failures in modern American history, the phony Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) narrative that dragged the U.S. into a forever war in Iraq, AND the sham “Russia Collusion” hoax used to undermine President Donald Trump.

The “Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) narrative” refers to the false claims made by the U.S. government primarily under President George W. Bush and his administration that Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq possessed active WMD programs, including chemical, biological, and potentially nuclear weapons.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, CIA Director George Tenet, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice were central in pushing the WMD case.

Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell famously presented the WMD case before the United Nations in February 2003, using satellite photos and intercepts that later turned out to be deeply flawed or outright false.

At the time, Clapper was the Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), responsible for analyzing satellite imagery and other geospatial intelligence. The NGA’s assessments of potential Iraqi WMD sites contributed to the overall intelligence community’s conclusion that Iraq had such weapons.

Clapper later conceded that the intelligence community’s assessment was wrong, describing it as building “a house of cards” based on faulty assumptions that ultimately led to the conclusion that WMD were present when they weren’t. 

“My fingerprints are on the infamous national intelligence assessment of October 2002,” he said during a 2018 event promoting his book Facts and Fears at GW’s Jack Morton Auditorium.

“[The intelligence community] built a case in our own minds, a house of cards it turned out that led us to the conclusion with pretty high confidence that they were there, and it turns out they weren’t,” he added.

“It represented closure for the country and closure for the intelligence community and certainly personal closure. It was certainly a profound event, and I will never forget it,” he said.

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Muslim Migrants Found NOT GUILTY of Attempted “Honor Killing” Despite Being Caught on Tape Violently Assaulting Daughter Allegedly For Not Wanting to Marry Older Muslim Man

A stunning verdict was reached earlier this week in the case of two Muslim immigrants living in Washington State who stood accused of one of the most unimaginable crimes.

As Fox 13 reported, both the mother and father were found not guilty on Thursday of attempting an “honor killing” of their 17-year-old daughter. Back in October, they were accused of trying to murder their daughter after she refused to go to their native Iraq and marry an older man.

A jury in Lacey, Washington found 44-year-old Ihsan Ali, the victim’s dad, not guilty of second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. Instead, they found him guilty of second-degree and fourth-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment.

The victim’s mom, 40-year-old Zahraa Ali, was found guilty of violating a protective order but acquitted of second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault, and second-degree burglary.

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