US soldier in attack video says sorry for killings
Matthew Campbell; 26/4/10 U.S. helicopter allegedly fires on unarmed reporters – A US soldier who took part in an attack in which 12 people, including a Reuters journalist, were killed and two children injured has written an emotional apology to the victims’ families in Iraq. Ethan McCord is seen carrying the children to safety in […] read more…A cry for help from behind Villawood’s wire fence …
Alicia Wood; 18/4/10 Ahmed Shab Aldoury has no one left. His parents were killed in a bomb blast that levelled his Baghdad house when he was 15 and he has been on the run ever since. Two weeks ago, Ahmed, 19, was detained in Villawood Detention Centre after travelling through Syria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Christmas […] read more…Congress told that drunk private guards shot civilians
26/2/10 Private American security guards working for the US military in Afghanistan removed hundreds of handguns and automatic weapons from stores intended for the exclusive use of the Afghan police and used them on drunken rampages that killed two Afghan civilians and injured at least two more. The guards included a former US marine with […] read more…Iraqi site at Ur could outdo pyramids
22/2/10 The buried antiquities of Ur, the biblical birthplace of Abraham and one of the cradles of civilisation, could outshine those of ancient Egypt, archeologists believe. With Iraq ravaged by war and strife since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Baghdad’s struggling government has had greater priorities than funding large-scale digs at Ur, […] read more…Explain the bribes
17/2/10; http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/letters/aussie-winners-not-compelled-to-be-grinners/2010/02/16/1266082267953.html?page=3 The settlement of the class action against AWB is not the end of the story (”Settlement bolsters AWB”, February 16). We still need to know the detail of why the federal police failed to prosecute any of those responsible for paying bribes to a country with which we were at war. Colin Simpson, […] read more…AWB settles class action case for $39.5m
Rebecca Urban; 16/2/10 Grains exporter AWB has settled a potential $100 million-plus class action brought by investors who claimed to be kept in the dark over secret payments to Iraqi companies, marking an end to the company’s legal battles in Australia. Less than a week into a four-week hearing in the Federal Court in Sydney, […] read more…Security firm accused of cheating US
Carol Leonnig, Nick Schwellenbach; 13/2/10 Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security contractor of defrauding the US government for years through phoney billing, including charging taxpayers for parties, spa trips and a prostitute. In court records unsealed this week, a husband and wife who worked for Blackwater said they had firsthand […] read more…AWB admits it knew fees went to Saddam’s Iraq
Susannah Moran; 11/2/10 AWB has admitted for the first time it knew it was paying “transport fees” that would end up with Saddam Hussein’s regime. However, the company denies this was in breach of UN sanctions and says the UN and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade knew it had to pay the fees […] read more…Secret papers could contradict Iraq evidence: Chilcot
Christopher Hope; 10/2/10 Tens of thousands of secret documents could contradict evidence given by members of the Blair government to the inquiry into the Iraq war, its chairman, Sir John Chilcot, has suggested as the former prime minister lashed out at the hunt for a ”scandal” and a ”conspiracy” over his controversial decision to back […] read more…Blair lacked basis for war
4/2/10 ; http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/ theaustralian/comments/blair_lacked_basis_for_war As an expatriate Briton in Australia, I would like to comment on your editorial defending Tony Blair following his evidence to the Chilcot inquiry (“Blair has no case to answer”, 1/2). In the first place, the legality of the war on Iraq was, to say the least, dubious. Moreover, Blair specifically informed […] read more…Blair shut out critics, says former minister
Paola Totaro; 3/2/10 Tony Blair not only misled the public about his decision to take Britain to war in Iraq but deliberately ordered that Cabinet critics be cut out of intelligence and military briefings in the lead-up, the Chilcot inquiry has been told. Clare Short, a former International Development minister and vehement critic of the […] read more…Blackwater probed over Iraq corruption
2/2/10 The US Justice Department is investigating whether officials of security firm Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi government officials in hopes of retaining the firm’s work in Iraq. Citing unnamed current and former government officials, the New York Times said that the department’s fraud section opened the inquiry late last year to determine whether […] read more…Files risk halts flow of refugees
Russell Skelton; 30/1/10 The Australian Government has stopped processing Iraqi refugees in Syria following Syrian Government demands for access to the personal files of refugees approved for resettlement in Australia. Australian immigration officials are concerned that Syrian authorities may pass the information back to Baghdad, putting the families of asylum seekers still in Iraq at […] read more…Disbar the war lawyers
Henry Porter & Afua Hirsch; 29/1/10 It’s no coincidence that the four politicians who took us to war – Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Lord Falconer and Lord Goldsmith were all lawyers. Of course there were others involved, but let us be quite clear that each of these was in a position to stop the headlong […] read more…Straw ‘rejected advice on Iraq’
Paola Totaro; 28/1/10 The British Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, has been humiliated by his former legal adviser who said his boss had twice overruled his entreaties against military action in Iraq while he was foreign secretary. In a tense day at the Chilcot inquiry, Sir Michael Wood, Mr Straw’s chief legal adviser at the time […] read more…Blasts rock central Baghdad
26/1/10; (2 Items) At least 24 people were killed last night and 40 wounded in three car bombings that shook the Iraqi capital. The first explosion occurred about 3.30pm (11.30pm AEDT), sending plumes of smoke rising hundreds of metres over the Abu Nawaz district, near the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, just across the Tigris River […] read more…