Nur al-Cubicle

A blog on the current crises in the Middle East and news accounts unpublished by the US press. Daily timeline of events in Iraq as collected from stories and dispatches in the French and Italian media: Le Monde (Paris), Il Corriere della Sera (Milan), La Repubblica (Rome), L'Orient-Le Jour (Beirut) and occasionally from El Mundo (Madrid).

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Saddam's Rape Room

So what do you call a room where a man's "genitals [are] slashed repeatedly with a doctor's scalpel" and a woman is summoned in to photograph the wounds? Only something the DoD could dream up, that's for certain, validating J.M. Coetzee's story of the DoD torture photo archivist gone insane. See the story here.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Iraqis say "No" to SOFA agreement

Not only have Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Moqtada Sadr spoken against the Status of Forces Agreement that Washington wants to foist on Baghdad, but even al-Hakim of the Islamic Supreme Council opposes it. The US would maintain FIFTY bases (is there enough room in the country for 50 bases?), control of Iraq's airspace, and the imperial presidio, the Embassy. Ayatollah Sistani is going to hold out for full sovereignty (i.e. a token US force and Iraq control of its airspace).

Friday, June 06, 2008

Anti-American Demonstrations by Iraq Shi'ites




Demonstrations broke out in Baghdad, Kufa, Najaf, Karbala and Basrah against the US attempt to ram though A Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) agreement with the Maliki government.