October 17, 2009

IPS analysis of 'Galbraith-gate'

It's here, and also archived here. Y'all know the story here already. (Renewed kudos to Reidar Visser for breaking it for all those of us who don't read Norwegian... Reidar,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:40 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

October 15, 2009

Good reporting from RFE/RL on Galbraith/DNO

Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty is a relic of the Cold War that in the mid-1990s got rebranded by Tom Dine (as you can read in my Nation piece) as...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:01 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

More on Galbraith; Boston Globe runs the story

Reidar Visser has a new report up on his blog, that summarizes the latest revelations about Galbraith and Kurdish oil made in today's Dagens Næringsliv, from Oslo. DN (and from...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:03 AM | Fulltext link (12 comments)

October 13, 2009

NYT studiously ignores Galbraith-DNO link

The NYT today carried a substantial article about the dispute over oil rights between the Iraqi central government and the Kurdish regional government, including many mentions of the oil lease...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:52 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

October 10, 2009

Peter Galbraith, oil contracts, and Kurds

Reidar Visser informs us today that the independent-minded US "free-lance diplomat" Peter Galbraith reportedly, from 2004 through 2008, held a five-percent share in the production-sharing agreement concluded between the small...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:56 AM | Fulltext link (26 comments)

October 01, 2009

Some good news on Iraq

Okay, it's still way too early for any celebrations. But just as the US announces the acceleration of its troop withdrawal from Iraq, the careful analyst Reidar Visser has had...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:47 AM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

September 17, 2009

Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, "benchmarks"

Excellent analysis, as usual, from Reidar Visser on Biden's latest trip to Iraq. Noting that this is Biden's second visit to Iraq as Vice-President, Visser writes, If anything, what these...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:31 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

September 04, 2009

IPS analysis of Iraq and related regional tensions

... is here. Also here. One of the points I make there is this: One notable aspect of the political tempests now swirling around Iraq is that neither in Iraq...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:42 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

Visser goes 2.0

The wise and well-informed analyst of Iraq affairs Reidar Visser has responded to the pleadings of the masses (well mine, anyway) and created a blog, Iraq and Gulf Analysis, on...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:11 AM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

August 31, 2009

Fayyad, Maliki, the Americans

Over the weekend I finished reading the 37-page program that Salam Fayyad, the PM in the Palestinian Interim Self-Governing Authority (PA) produced for the new, and still western-funded 'government' that...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:59 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

Turkish FM mediating between Iraq and Syria

As long-time JWN readers are aware, I have always been worried about the prospect that as the US military decreases its presence in Iraq, many of the country's neighbors would...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:58 AM | Fulltext link (10 comments)

August 26, 2009

Syria-Iran tussle over Iraq?

As the US withdrawal from Iraq become an increasingly firm prospect, the tussle is now quite predictably intensifying among the war-shattered country's neighbors for influence over what remains of it....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:18 PM | Fulltext link (28 comments)

July 23, 2009

Visser: Obama gets Iraqis out of boxes; US MSM still don't

Reidar Visser has an encouraging short report noting on the way that Pres. Obama referred to Iraq's people(s) yesterday: At one point he mentioned “all of Iraq’s ethnic and religious”...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:53 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

July 22, 2009

How occupations end

We here in Washington DC currently have a front-seat view of how a country undertakes the ending of the military occupation by its ground forces of another country's territory. Today,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:15 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

July 18, 2009

US military chafes under Iraq Withdrawal Agreement

Oh, pity the retreating hegemon-- just for a fleeting second-- as it starts to realize the implications of the drawdown of ts forces from Iraq, in compliance with the Withdrawal...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:39 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

IPS post on Nabucco project and the Middle East

My piece on this is here. Also archived here. This piece was a quick out-take, if you like, from some of the research I dd for my presentation at the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:09 AM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

July 17, 2009

Recalling the importance of the Iraqi-US Withdrawal Agreement

At yesterday's panel discussion on the regional implications of the US withdrawal from Iraq, former assistant secretary of defense Larry Korb started off his presentation by saying, We need to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:02 AM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

July 13, 2009

This Thursday: Speaking on implications of withdrawal from Iraq

If you're in the Washington DC area on Thursday morning, note that I'll be participating in what looks like (PDF) a pretty informative event. It's brought to you by...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:20 PM | Fulltext link (44 comments)

July 06, 2009

IPS piece on Biden and Iraq

... You can find it here, and archived here. I know I haven't written much about Iraq recently. So I really welcomed the opportunity to do so today. I also...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:40 PM | Fulltext link (12 comments)

June 30, 2009

Iraq: An occupation recedes

Congratulations to my Iraqi friends on the occasion of the significant (if not quite total) withdrawal of US military occupation rule from your cities and towns that has been taking...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:54 AM | Fulltext link (72 comments)

April 15, 2009

Who's In Charge?

In Iraq, that is. Under a security agreement signed between Washington and Baghdad last November during president George Bush's tenure, U.S. troops will withdraw from towns and cities by June...
Posted by Don Bacon at 12:53 AM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

April 08, 2009

Let's Be Patient

President Obama in Iraq: This is going to be a critical period, these next 18 months. Three Friedman Units. from Wikipedia: The term [Friedman Unit] is in reference to a...
Posted by Don Bacon at 12:50 AM | Fulltext link (28 comments)

March 08, 2009

An officer home from Iraq: his thoughts

I enjoyed an extended chat with a jr. US Army officer, on furlough from Iraq, about the time that Phyllis Bennis here gave a stimulating guest comment that questioned the...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 02:35 AM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

March 05, 2009

Is Obama working to end the US war and occupation in Iraq?

The following is a guest op-ed contributed to JWN by Phyllis Bennis President Obama announced “a new strategy to end the war in Iraq.” That sounds good – an indication...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:40 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

March 04, 2009

Divide and Conquer

Success in foreign affairs, where domination is the goal, is often accomplished withn a divide-and-conquer strategy. Conn Hallinan, 2004: It was "divide and conquer" that made it possible for an...
Posted by Don Bacon at 03:35 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

February 15, 2009

Deep US blind spot on international legality

Why is the fact that the U.S. government is contractually obligated to withdraw all its troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011 so frequently ignored in US public...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:03 AM | Fulltext link (12 comments)