FRONTIER JUSTICE FOR SADDAM - ETHAN HEITNER (TOMPAINE.COM, NOVEMBER 6)
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/0..._for_saddam.php

HOLLOW VICTORY: THE HANGING OF SADDAM - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, NOVEMBER 7): The hanging of Saddam is not likely to resolve the internal strife that is tearing apart Iraq as a society and as a polity.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK07Ak01.html

HOW NOT TO DAMN SADDAM - STEVE NEGUS (FINANCIAL TIMES, NOVEMBER 5): The chances that Saddam's trial will be a model for the future or aid national reconciliation are slight.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8bb0e8e6-6cf0-11db...00779e2340.html

THE SADDAM HUSSEIN VERDICT - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 6): In Mr. Hussein's sentence to death by hanging, Iraq got neither the full justice nor the full fairness it deserved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/opinion/...agewanted=print

VERDICT DEEPENS IRAQ'S SECTARIAN DIVIDE - (DAILY TELEGRAPH, NOVEMBER 5)
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5001028,00.html

SADDAM HUSSEIN DEATH SENTENCE A MILESTONE: SHIITES AND KURDS PRAISED THE VERDICT HANDED DOWN BY THE IRAQI HIGH TRIBUNAL SUNDAY - SCOTT PETERSON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 6)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1106/p01s01-woiq.html

CRIMINAL AGAINST HUMANITY - L. PAUL BREMER (WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 6): The decision by Iraq's Special Tribunal to convict Saddam Hussein of some 150 murders is a welcome step on Iraq's painful journey toward its more hopeful future.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1162...1088913979.html
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VERDICT FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN: LIKE THE NEW POLITICAL ORDER AROUND T, THE TRIAL WAS MESSY, COSTLY AND DIVISIVE -- BUT THE JUDGMENT IS JUST - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 6)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500787_pf.html

SADDAM HUSSEIN: GUILTY - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 6): From the famous moment that joyous crowds celebrated the toppling of Hussein's statue in 2003, Iraqis have waited for justice. Now they have it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed

THE RECKONING OF THE DEAD: SADDAM HUSSEIN'S COMING END - JOSEPH MORRISON SKELLY (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6): The execution of Saddam Hussein will deliver justice in its full measure.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDBlZ...zNhNTE3MTdlYzc=

JUSTICE SERVED: SADDAM HUSSEIN'S VERDICT - AN NRO SYMPOSIUM (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODk5N...zc5YmU4Yjk2YWQ=

JUSTICE FOR SADDAM: BUT HE REMAINS THE FACE OF OUR ENEMY IN IRAQ - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, NOVEMBER 6): Justice for Saddam is one admirable legacy of the American sacrifice in Iraq. But to make it permanent, the U.S. must also defeat the insurgency that battles on in Saddam's name.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110009205

THIS IS PROGRESS: THE COURT SPEAKS IN THE CASE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN - MICHAEL NOVAK (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6): The trial of Saddam Hussein deserves to go down in the history of democracy in the Middle East as a milestone event.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjU1Y...WU0ODNlYjg0MTQ=

THE VERDICT IS IN - EDITORS (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6): Whatever his mistakes in implementation, President Bush made the right choice, with the result that the Middle East and the world will forever be free of Saddam's menace.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWI3Z...TBjZThmMjAzODE=

THROW THE TRUTHINESS BUMS OUT - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 5): And always, always there's the false reality imposed on Iraq: "Absolutely, we're winning!" in the president's recent formulation.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/opini...agewanted=print
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HOW BUSH CODDLES IRAQIS AND COWS AMERICANS - WILLIAM SALETAN (SLATE, NOVEMBER 2): A government that spends tens of billions of dollars to prop up able-bodied people, year after year with no deadline for self-sufficiency, breeds dependency. That's what Bush has done in Iraq.
http://www.slate.com/id/2152774/?nav=tap3

A FORGOTTEN STRATEGY FOR EXITING IRAQ: EVEN WHILE FIGHT GOES ON, GIVE DIPLOMACY A CHANCE - JOHN ARQUILLA (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, NOVEMBER 5): Talking about peace, even while still fighting, is better than either continuing a war without hope or simply surrendering the Iraqis to a perpetually bloody future.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...ING05M43PT1.DTL

AND NOW, BACK TO THE WAR: SOME SEE PULLOUT SHORTENING CONFLICT - SEBASTIAN MALLABY (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 6): When Iraq's combatants fight themselves to stalemate, some coalition of external powers may have to enforce a peace, and the United States would probably be part of such an effort.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500773_pf.html

WHAT BAKER SHOULD TELL BUSH - JOE KLEIN (TIME, NOVEMBER 5): In Iraq, democracy must take a backseat to the restoration of order.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1555118,00.html

MASS IRAQ VIOLENCE OUTCOME OF US DIVIDE AND RULE POLICIES - SALIM LONE (COMMON DREAMS, NOVEMBER 5): The Americans and the British are now reviled by Shi'a and Sunni alike; their exit should not be negotiable.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1105-20.htm

NO THIRD WAY IN IRAQ: 'REDEPLOYMENT' WILL NOT 'INCENTIVIZE' THE IRAQI MILITARY. IT WILL LEAD TO ITS COLLAPSE - FREDERICK W. KAGAN (WEEKLY STANDARD, NOVEMBER 13): The pullback of U.S. forces to their bases will not reduce the sectarian conflict, which their presence did not generate. It will increase it.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/902lfnxh.asp

BREAKING IRAQ APART: PARTITIONING IRAQ MAY SOUND LIKE AN EXIT STRATEGY. BUT IT IGNORES THE REALITIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST - JUAN COLE (MERCURY NEWS, NOVEMBER 5)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...al/15935571.htm

TOP TEN WAYS WE KNOW WE HAVE LOST IN IRAQ - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, NOVEMBER 4)
http://www.juancole.com/2006/11/top-ten-wa...ve-lost-in.html

WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO END WAR - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, NOVEMBER 6): Can we admit that the loss of honor will not come with how the Iraq war ends, because we lost our honor when we began it? This time, can we accept defeat?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...end_war?mode=PF

A WARTIME LOVE STORY - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 5): The neocons insist that it was the execution of the war that was wrong. Actually, it was wrong to go to war with a trumped-up casus belli and without ever debating what could happen if they took a baseball bat to a beehive.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/opini...agewanted=print
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TWO TALES OF WAR: READ 'EM AND WEEP - COLBERT I. KING (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 4): How in the world could we be reliving a nightmare like Vietnam in Iraq?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301373_pf.html

Iraq-Gate

How The United States Illegally Armed Saddam Hussein

"Spider's Web": The Secret History of How the United States Illegally Armed
Saddam Hussein; a Conversation with the Journalist Who Broke the Iraq-gate
Scandal That Involved President George Bush, James Baker and Donald Rumsfeld .

This is a must listen
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1412.htm

5 U.S. Occupation Force Soldiers Killed in Iraq:

Two U.S. Marines and one soldier died on Saturday and Sunday from wounds
sustained in combat in the western province of Anbar
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PAR624683.htm

Only 8% of Americans Support Iraq Strategy:

Many adults in the United States believe their federal administration should
alter its tactics in Iraq, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS
News. 61 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. should change its military
strategy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15523.htm

US 'breeding extremism' in Iraq:

An Iraqi parliamentary delegation visiting Qatar has accused the US army in Iraq
of breeding extremism by carrying out an "irresponsible arrest campaign".
http://tinyurl.com/yl3auf

4 Minute Video:

Saddam reacts to death penalty
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15521.htm

Bush and Blair have forfeited the moral authority to hang Saddam:

George Bush's handling of this issue restores one's respect for Pontius Pilate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1940449,00.html

Blair opposed to Saddam death penalty :

"We are against the death penalty, whether it's Saddam or anybody else."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6195520,00.html

Exclusive: Saddam Was key in early CIA plot:

While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence
agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts
with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized
six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd
al-Karim Qasim.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2849.htm

In case you missed it:

Secret Message From James Baker to Tariq Aziz:

Baker informs Aziz, whose government 13 months previously had gassed Kurdish
villages, that "the United States seeks a broadened and deepened relationship
with Iraq."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2265.htm

In case you missed it:

The Teicher Affidavit: Iraq-Gate:

The United States actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the
Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing U.S. military
intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country
arms sales to Iraq to make sure that Iraq had the military weaponry required.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1413.htm

A Brief History: US-Iraq 1980s:

Iraq uses US-supplied military intelligence “to calibrate attacks with mustard
gas on Iranian ground troops....”
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timelin...ine=us_iraq_80s

America helped make a monster:

It is hard to believe that, during most of the 1980s, America knowingly
permitted the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission to import bacterial cultures that
might be used to build biological weapons. But it happened.
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_cr/s092002.html

Roadside bomb kills 3 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan:

Three U.S. soldiers have died of wounds received in a bomb explosion in
Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Monday.
http://tinyurl.com/ym7j4r

Syria hints at armed resistance against Israel if peace talks fail to return
Golan Heights

Mohsen Bilal said international negotiations should lead to Israel giving back
the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later
annexed. If that does not happen, he warned Syria could resort to ''other means,
which struggling people have used at various points in history, beginning with
legitimate resistance.''
http://tinyurl.com/y9g7lq

The day the hatred boiled over in Balad

BALAD, Iraq - When gunmen murdered dozens of people in this once
peaceful Shiite market city over two days last month, no one
stepped in to stop the killing. Not U.S. forces, whose stated
purposes in Iraq include preventing all-out civil war. Not the
Iraqi security forces, who mostly turned a blind eye to the
massacre. Not the people of Balad, who allowed decades of fear and
hatred to overwhelm their better instincts. By Borzou Daragahi.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/eBC...Io30G2B0H2Rz0Ek

Saddam in court for second trial BBC News
Saddam Hussein has returned to court in Baghdad for his genocide trial, two days after he was sentenced to death in a separate trial.The former Iraqi president and six co-defendants are charged over their role in a military campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. More than 180,000 people are alleged to have died in the Anfal campaign. Saddam Hussein appeared in court wearing his familiar dark suit and white shirt with no tie. He smiled as he made his way to his seat, but appeared subdued compared with his defiance on Sunday as his death sentence was read out.It is not clear if the Iraqi authorities will wait until the second trial is complete before they carry out the sentence in the first case. An automatic appeal against the guilty verdict will be launched, to be decided by a panel of nine judges. A ruling is expected late this year or early next year, and if the death sentence is upheld, the execution must be carried out within 30 days. Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging over the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail following an assassination attempt on him in 1982. The Shia-led government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has made it clear it wants the execution to take place soon as possible but some Kurdish politicians have said they want the Anfal case to be finished first.

Kurdish witness
The Anfal trial resumes as the curfew imposed for the verdict in the first trial has been lifted. Saddam Hussein and the six co-defendants - all different from his previous co-defendants - face charges over their role in the Anfal campaign against ethnic Kurds, many of whom were gassed to death. The best-known of the co-defendants is Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, accused of masterminding the Anfal campaign. The trial began in August. Tuesday's first witness told the court that he and other men from his village had surrendered to Iraqi soldiers after being promised an amnesty. Qahar Khalil Mohammed, a Kurd, then told the court how they were lined up and shot by the soldiers. He said he survived despite several wounds, but 33 other people from his village died. Saddam Hussein rebutted the testimony, saying there was nobody who could verify Mr Mohammed's account. More trials are possible over Saddam Hussein's response to a 1991 Shia uprising and the repression of the people of Iraq's southern marshlands.

At least 20 killed including UK and U.S. occupation force soldiers:

A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military patrol killed three civilians, including a student, and wounded eight others, including three students
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07661839.htm

15 bodies found in the Tigris river as fierce battle rages in Ramadi:

15 bodies of unidentified torture victims were found floating in the Tigris River in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, Police Lt Mohammed al Shamari said.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,701...9,00.html?f=rss

10 Bodies Found In Occupied Baghdad:

A total of 10 bodies were found with gunshot wounds during the last 24 hours in different districts of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. Some of the victims showed signs torture.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PAR724153.htm

Fallujah once again beset by violence:

In recent months, insurgents have filtered back into the city, despite tight controls that limit access to only six checkpoints. Residents must submit to an extraordinary identification system that includes fingerprinting, retina scans and bar-coded identification cards.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15944717.htm

Iraqi Ministry Accuses Employees of Prison Abuse :

The Interior Ministry has formally accused 55 employees of committing human rights crimes in connection with the torture and abuse of prisoners at a detention center in eastern Baghdad, a spokesman for the ministry said this morning.
http://tinyurl.com/y2djlo

Saddam will be hanged 'by end-January':

Saddam’s execution will probably take place in a closed room inside an Iraqi prison, most likely in Baghdad in the presence of Iraqi government officials and private citizens, whose families suffered under the dictator’s reign
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15535.htm

Two TV stations closed for showing Iraqis protesting against death sentence for Saddam:

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the Iraqi government’s decision yesterday to close down two privately-owned TV stations for “inciting violence and murder” by screening footage of protests against former President Saddam Hussein’s death sentence.
http://electroniciraq.net/news/2603.shtml

Gwynne Dyer: Why Hussein ultimately wins, and dies a martyr:

He is the victim of a state-sponsored lynching, and so, for many people, he will die a martyr.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/ed...al/15946295.htm

Move to reinstate Saddam supporters :

Iraq's Shia-dominated government has announced a major concession for the Sunni Muslim backers of Saddam Hussein, a day after the former president was sentenced to hang.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article1961446.ece

New audit hunts Iraq's lost millions:

A new audit examining 15 contracts signed in Iraq has found new evidence of massive corruption and mismanagement by the US government.
http://tinyurl.com/yxa9ry

Hundreds of US Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal in Petition :

Hundreds of US soldiers have signed a petition calling for a troop withdrawal from Iraq and the document is to be formally presented to Congress in January, organizers said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1107-01.htm

'Failed' American envoy to leave Iraq :

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy in Baghdad who tried to conciliate the Sunni people, is to leave his post in the next few months said a senior member of the US administration.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15534.htm

Rats jump ship:

U-turns the neocon way :

David Frum, Mr Bush's "axis of evil" speechwriter, reportedly believes failure in Iraq is inescapable and the president is to blame. Other well-known neocons also have critical things to say about administration competence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/sto...1941232,00.html

IRAQ AND THE U.S. MIDTERM ELECTIONS
============================================

ELECTIONS-US: Democrats Drub Republicans, Face Own Tests
Analysis by Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON - Come January, Democrats will control one and possibly both houses of the U.S. Congress for the first time in more than a decade after voters snubbed President Bush's Republican Party and prompted Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to quit his embattled post.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35415

U.S./IRAQ: A Convenient Verdict? - By Emad Mekay
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35386

Documentary Blasts Iraq War Profiteering - By Mark Weisenmiller
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35360

U.S.: Republicans Spring a New Winning Strategy - Analysis by Bill Berkowitz
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35335

U.S. Jews Give Bush, Republicans Failing Grades - By Jim Lobe
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35325

Hillary Clinton Urges Talks with Syria, Iran, North Korea - By Jim Lobe
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35330

Belafonte on Thinking Outside the Ballot Box - By Aaron Glantz
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35313