- Iraq is urging over 1 Million pilgrims to leave the shiite holy city of Karbala and police have imposed a curfew after two days of violence including raging gunbattles between rival militias that claimed at least 35 lives during a religious festival.

Security officials told The Associated Press that Mahdi Army gunmen, loyalists of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, attacked guards around the two Karbala shrines that were under the protection of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

In telephone calls to reporters in Karbala, gunfire and exploding mortar shells could be heard.

Read the rest of this entry »

- Was Warner’s call the other day for the president to send a signal to the Iraqi government by pulling out a small band of troops the Senator’s first step in backing a full pullout? On Meet The Press this morning Warner said he might support a bill in the Senate for a full troop withdrawl.

- This week Senator Hillary Clinton called for the ouster of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki who has now responded directly saying Clinton & Senator Carl Levin saying “There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses”.

- From the Associated Press: ” A call by Puerto Rico’s governor for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq earned a standing ovation from a conference of more than 4,000 National Guardsmen.

Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila said Saturday that the U.S. administration has “no new strategy and no signs of success” and that prolonging the war would needlessly put guardsmen in harm’s way. “

- Republican Sen. John Warner said today he believes the president should send a message to the Iraq government by polling out a number of troops from Iraq by Christmas.

“We must start an orderly, carefully-planned, thought-out redeployment… in my humble judgment, that will get everybody’s attention.”

The White House said the statement and those like it are “inappropriate” but it is a further example of mounting tension between elected GOP officials and the administration.

Though it is a very big symbol of what is going on it is not necessarily a “major development” as little is likely to come from the statement.

- It is being reported by CNN that a major Republican firm with close ties to the White House is actually working to undermine the administration of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Barbour Griffith & Rogers is sending out e-mails criticizing al-Maliki to promite a client former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi as a replacement.

- Yesterday Senator Hillary Clinton called for the ouster of al-Maliki at the displeasure of John Edwards and the Bush administration. Today it is being reported that September’s NIE reportwill criticize the al-Maliki government calling his admin “unable to govern”. The report will reportedly say that the surge has had an impact and will continue to do so if it continues but that violence will continue as will political instability.

- An odd report has come out which states that Iran is distributing leaflets in Kurdish Iraq claiming “The authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran will work on cleansing this area” and that Turkey is working with the nation to plot an attack. The report was denied by Iran and in all honesty the sources seem less than credible.

Reports claim that these leaflets were dropped yesterday by mysterious helicopters in the region. Is this the work of hysteria or propaganda, maybe some kind of psychological warfare? There has been shelling in the region but not clear sign of a larger imminent attack.

We are reaching a pretty important moment in Iraq politically next month so I am going to start keeping a closer eye on the country here in the blog of major developments both on the ground and in regards to political ramifications in ‘08.

- 14 of our soldiers are reported dead in the country after a helicopter crash.

- Separately, at least 28 people were killed and 91 wounded when a suicide car bomb detonated outside a police building in the Iraqi town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, in Salaheddin province, police said.

- Hillary Clinton is now receiving scorn from the left after suggesting that the surge in Iraq is working but that it is too late. This is another tightrope for Clinton who seems to have recognized she will not court the far-left as well as Obama or Edwards because of her Iraq strategy but instead believes a moderate position on the subject will better serve candidates in the general election.

Read the rest of this entry »