Iraq Headlines 3/24/08

A selection of articles on Iraq from the past week.

The Private Sector’s Tramping in Iraq
New York Times
March 24, 2008
As the nonpareil war profiteer in Iraq, Blackwater Worldwide keeps outdoing its own mercenary record.

Iraq Plans Oil, Gas Development Projects
Associated Press
March 23, 2008
Iraq's Oil Ministry said Sunday that it has invited local and international oil companies to bid for contracts including one to develop a natural gas field in a Sunni area in the western part of the country.

US rebuked over Iraqi refugees
Press TV (Iran)
March 23, 2008
The US accepts a small number of Iraqis with refugee status despite the poor living conditions in the country, a top rescue committee says.

Rep. Waters Leads Letter to Bush Expressing Concern Over Plight of Displaced Iraqis
Press Release from Congresswoman Maxine Waters
March 20, 2008
Rep. Waters said, “This letter sends a strong message that Congress is committed to addressing the humanitarian crisis confronting Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons. The displacement crisis will get worse if ignored and we look forward to the President’s support as we work to address this issue.”

Iraq at Five: The Refugee Crisis
Washington Post
March 20, 2008
Refugees International senior advocate Kristele Younes, who recently returned from checking conditions in Syria, was online Thursday, March 20 at 2 p.m. ET to take questions about the people forced out of their homes by the conflict in Iraq and what needs to be done.

Too deadly to return home, refugees say
Agence France-Presse
March 20, 2008
Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq's hundreds of thousands of refugees remain unconvinced that security has improved sufficiently for them to return home, even though life has grown more difficult in their countries of asylum.

War Victims Fund Aids Innocents
Associated Press
March 20, 2008
His last surgery, performed in October in Jordan, managed to halt the infection. The cost was covered by the war victims fund, named for Marla Ruzicka, an American humanitarian activist killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005.

Ottawa to double Iraqi refugees accepted this year
The Star (Canada)
March 20, 2008
Canada intends to accept more than double the number of refugees from Iraq this year, says Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley. Canada will raise its Middle East resettlement target to 3,000 people this year, up 54 per cent from 2007, Finley said.

Turmoil of Iraq War sparks surge in EU asylum applications
The Guardian (UK)
March 19, 2008
The number of Iraqis applying for asylum across the EU almost doubled last year, rising from 19,375 to 38,286, reflecting the growing chaos in the country, UN figures released yesterday showed.

The untold story of Iraq's refugee crisis
Reuters
March 19, 2008
This kind of coverage in the mainstream media, running alongside a set of preoccupations which include the effectiveness of the "surge" of U.S. troops, the progress of the Iraqi parliament and the fall of sectarian violence, seems to give voice to an underlying desire that western involvement in Iraq - embarrassing as it has been - is in the process of ending. Yet, as those in the aid world are all too aware, a humanitarian story of gigantesque proportions has been building for some time, with 2 million Iraqi refugees living in empty buildings and makeshift camps in foreign lands, and a further 2.5 million internally displaced within Iraq.

On the Trail of the Rebuilding Story, Littered With Broken Parts
New York Times
March 19, 2008
We started chasing the reconstruction story, which I had imagined, as I bought those boots at Harry’s, would be a story of great engineers and heroic workers, something like the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in a war-torn Middle Eastern country: the Roeblings on the Tigris. Instead we found an infrastructure so decrepit, smashed and oversubscribed after decades of war and neglect that nothing the American engineers did, with billions of dollars at their disposal, seemed to work.

Commentary: Five Years Later, News From Iraq Not All Bad
Radio Free Europe
March 19, 2008
Politics is a dirty business anywhere in the world, but Iraqi politics today rank among the most divisive. While much has been written about Iraq since 2003 -- the early mistakes that continue to impede progress, the bitter rivalries that leave so many innocents dead, the roles of superpowers and neighbors -- few observers have offered a far-sighted view of the state of affairs.

Arab countries hosting Iraqi refugees appeal for more assistance
International Herald Tribune
March 18, 2008
Arab countries urged the international community Tuesday to provide them with more financial assistance to deal with the influx of Iraqi refugees fleeing the violence in their war torn homeland.

Situation of Palestinians on Iraq-Syria border continues to deteriorate
Briefing notes from UNHCR
March 18, 2008
The situation of more than 2,700 Palestinians who have been stranded and are living in inhumane conditions in two border camps at the Iraq-Syrian border continues to deteriorate.