BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.

There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.

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During the five years the United States has occupied Iraq, the Bush administration has created a new state with a number of notable features: A venal, dysfunctional government. A terrorist haven and training ground. A nation so violent and dangerous that 10 percent of the population has fled.

Add to that a new hallmark: Nearly the most corrupt nation on Earth.

Only two states out of 180, Somalia and Burma, outrank Iraq in Transparency International’s latest worldwide corruption index. They are tied for last place. But Iraq has plummeted through the rankings since 2004, when it was near the middle of the pack, and is now within a hair’s width of crashing to the bottom.

Along the way, U.S. officials say, Iraqi government officers, from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on down, have embezzled not only uncounted billions of dollars from their own treasury — but also $18 billion in U.S. aid. That’s about equal to the annual budget for Colorado.

Radhi al-Radhi, an Iraqi judge who provided that figure, was the state’s chief anti-corruption official, until death threats forced him to flee last year. He called the theft among the largest in modern history.

In recent months, several U.S. government reports have detailed the problem, and Congress has held hearings. The conclusion: Not only has the United States provided much of the money Iraqi officials have purloined, U.S. officials have aided and abetted the theft.

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America currently has 151,000 troops in Iraq and, even after projected withdrawals next month, troop levels will stand at more than 142,000 – 10 000 more than when the military “surge” began in January 2007. Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.

The precise nature of the American demands has been kept secret until now. The leaks are certain to generate an angry backlash in Iraq. “It is a terrible breach of our sovereignty,” said one Iraqi politician, adding that if the security deal was signed it would delegitimise the government in Baghdad which will be seen as an American pawn.

The US has repeatedly denied it wants permanent bases in Iraq but one Iraqi source said: “This is just a tactical subterfuge.” Washington also wants control of Iraqi airspace below 29,000ft and the right to pursue its “war on terror” in Iraq, giving it the authority to arrest anybody it wants and to launch military campaigns without consultation.

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George Bush, Dick Cheney and their advisors may want to look up the unpopular Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of the last century between Great Britain and the nominally independent Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, which gave Great Britain military and political privileges in Iraq that are similar to what the US is seeking today, including the right to build unlimited military bases and complete freedom of movement of British troops in Iraqi territories and airspace.

They may also want to look up how that treaty ended, as well as the fate of the Iraqi prime minister responsible for signing the treaty (and later the Baghdad Pact). The PM, who was incidentally named Nuri al-Sa’id, tried to escape Baghdad in a woman’s dress on 14 July, 1958–when the Iraqi army led by Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim staged a coup against the Hashemite monarchy–but he was captured, shot, tied with ropes, dragged on the streets, mutilated beyond recognition by Iraqis who hit the corpse with slippers, and then hung from a building in central Baghdad and later burned.

UPDATE: Former Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi writes:

The Bush administration has set 31 July as the deadline for the signing of the agreement. Under the present plan, the draft of the agreement will have to be brought to Iraq’s parliament for approval. Parliament, however, is beholden to the political parties that dominate the present coalition, and there is unlikely to be substantive debate on the matter. The Shia religious leadership in Najaf, especially Grand Ayatollah Sistani, has not clearly come out against the agreement, although his spokesmen have set out markers that must be respected by the negotiators. The Najaf religious hierarchy is probably the only remaining institution that can block the agreement. But it is unclear whether the political or religious leadership are prepared to confront the US. President Bush, with an eye on history, is seeking to salvage his Iraq expedition by claiming that Iraq is now pacified and is a loyal American ally in the Middle East and the War on Terror.

It is only now that Iraqis have woken up to the possibility that Iraq might be a signatory on a long-term security treaty with the US, as a price for regaining its full sovereignty. Iraqis must know its details and implications. How would such an alliance constrain Iraq’s freedom in choosing its commercial, military and political partners? Will Iraq be obliged to openly or covertly support all of America’s policies in the Middle East? These are issues of a vital nature that cannot be brushed aside with the Iraqi government’s platitudes about “protecting Iraqi interests”. A treaty of such singular significance to Iraq cannot be rammed through with less than a few weeks of debate. Otherwise, the proposed strategic alliance will most certainly be a divisive element in Iraqi politics. It will have the same disastrous effect as the treaty with Britain nearly eighty years ago.

The report found that 65 per cent of refugees who do not wish to return said that they were under direct threat in Iraq. Some 30 per cent do not want to return because of the general insecurity in their home country and 8 per cent said their home in Iraq had been destroyed or was occupied by others.

A total of 4.7 million Iraqis have been uprooted as a result of the crisis in their country. Of these over 2 million are living as refugees in neighbouring countries – mostly Syria and Jordan – while 2.7 million are internally displaced inside Iraq.

Following the 9/11 attacks, President Bush claimed that Muslims hate America for its freedoms. Since then, 50,000 Muslims in 35 countries were surveyed by Gallup, the largest poll of Muslims ever. The results represent over 6 years of study and are outlined in a new book by Dalia Mogahed and John L. Esposito entitled “Who Speaks For Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really

Mahmoud Abbas’s comments on Saturday came as more Israeli air raids brought the total death toll over four days to 88 people, at least a third of which have been children, according to medical sources.

Fifty-four people were killed during Saturday’s

Here are some of the following news reports:
Dear all,
We hope everyone is having a healthy and happy start to the New Year. We are very happy to share with you an article that was published on AlJazeera.net just a few days ago mentioning the Walk for Iraq movement. Please click on the following link to see the article: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1EB153AF-9C8B-489B-AACF-EEAFB7E2F591.htm For those of you who don’t know about Walk for Iraq, in June 2007, a 19 km walk was organised for 30 people in the south coast of England, UK. A staggering £20,000 was raised for the International Committee of the Red Cross by the walkers to fund life saving activities in Iraq. Due to the success of the walk, the movement was later picked up in Auckland, New Zealand (NZ) and Toronto, Canada. Raising an impressive $40,000 between them, funds were donated to Iraqi Refugees of Refugees International and to the Iraq Appeal fund of The Canadian Red Cross. Both walks produced an astounding list of achievements, from extensive media coverage (leading news channels and newspapers), to welcoming the minister of ethnic affairs Chris Carter on the NZ walk, to being described as the one of the most successful fundraising initiatives the Canadian Red Cross have ever seen for the Middle East. Well done to Zainab Shnyin and Yazen Al-Safi and their teams in setting up the walk in their respective cities. You can read more on the achievements of each walk and their donations at the following link: http://www.walkforiraq.com/ourwalks.html (see Related Information section under each walk)

A Global team has now been set up due to the worldwide interest in the movement and the project is now moving to other cities around the world. Just a glimse of what countries will be hosting Walk for Iraq for 2008: Holland,Qatar,Oman,UAE,New Zealand,Ottowa, Canada,Boston, Chicago, and Melbourne.

Walk for Iraq is also now on Wikipedia. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_for_Iraq
Our future vision and aim in globalising the spirit of the walk is to generate more funds for humanitarian assistance and raise more awareness of the sufferings of the Iraqi people.

Finally, before we leave you all, we would like you to see this very moving video that was put together by the New Zealand team to promote Walk for Iraq http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCN5umAIam0

Anyone without a security clearance was forced to leave the courtroom for the testimony of two witnesses for Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan. The defendant stayed in the courtroom.

The witnesses were U.S. Army special forces officers Col. Morgan Banks, a psychologist, and Lt. Col. G. John Taylor, an attorney. Officials did not say why their testimony had to be kept secret.

Hamdan, one of 21 Guantanamo prisoners charged so far, faces up to life in prison if convicted of conspiracy and supporting terrorism at the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.

His Pentagon-appointed attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, said that under court rules he was permitted to disclose only that the two witnesses were at the United States’ Bagram air base in Afghanistan when Hamdan was taken there by U.S. forces in December 2001.

“It is my hope that the American public will someday hear Mr. Hamdan’s defense,” Mizer said in an e-mail before the session.

Some witnesses at Hamdan’s trial have been identified only by numbers or their initials, and security officers have cut off audio to observers at pretrial hearings of other detainees to conceal classified information.

But Thursday’s session marked the first time the Bush administration’s military tribunals at this U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba have taken testimony in secret, according to Air Force Capt. Paula Bissonette, a tribunals spokeswoman.

The chief prosecutor for the tribunals, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said the government wants to keep the trials as open as possible.

“It is a balance between the goal of openness … and the need to address some national security concerns,” he said.

The prosecution rested its case earlier Thursday following testimony from a Naval Criminal Investigative Service interrogator, Robert McFadden, who said Hamdan swore allegiance to bin Laden.

Hamdan’s lawyers argue he was merely a low-level bin Laden employee, and the Yemeni prisoner has denied swearing loyalty to the al-Qaida chief.

The defense team attempted to block McFadden’s testimony, arguing his May 2003 interrogation of Hamdan at Guantanamo was conducted under coercive conditions. But the judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, rejected those claims in a heavily redacted ruling Thursday.

Allred said confinement at Guantanamo is “undoubtedly an unpleasant, highly regimented experience, with instant rewards or loss of privileges for infractions.” But his ruling said the various disciplinary actions against Hamdan did not have any bearing on the interrogation.

Sahr MuhammedAlly, a lawyer with Human Rights First who has been observing Hamdan’s trial, said the judge’s ruling and the closed session raise doubts about the tribunals’ transparency.

“They say it’s fair and open, but secrecy affects every part of these proceedings,” MuhammedAlly said.

Military prosecutors plan trials for about 80 of the roughly 265 foreign men held at Guantanamo. So far only one detainee has been convicted: Australian David Hicks, who pleaded guilty under an agreement that sent him home to serve a nine-month prison sentence.

Abdullatif is orphan lives with his four brothers, 2 sisters and his mother, he is 12 years old, his 3 of brothers work in the market and he is working too, his youngest brother goes to school, Abdullatif sells cigarettes on the street in the market, he has small bench made of wood that he puts his cigarettes on it and sets behind it to wait anyone buys cigarettes from him, he starts 7:00 am Iraqi local time until sunset time, when it is sunset time he puts his cigarettes in the bag and he goes to vegetable benches to buy cheep vegetables to feed his family.

It is summer 1:00 to 4:00 PM, in this time everyday streets get almost nobody because of the heat of Iraqi Summer, Abdullatif puts his bench inside one of stores near by his bench and uses this shortage in selling to go to video games store to watch other kids who play video game, he has no enough money to play and the money he makes it is enough for his family’s food so he keeps just watching instead of playing.

One day, he left his bench to watch video games, while he is watching and talking to kids policemen came and surrounded that store, policemen took all kids also Abdullatif to police station,

Policemen brought kids including Abdullatif into police station and started to yell to them and cursing,
“All you are criminals and you have 2 choices, first staying here inside police station and get tortured or if you wash and clean the police station you will be released” Abdullatif said that what they told us after they brought us into police station,
Abdullatif and other kids started to wash and clean the whole police station until sunset then they were released,
Abdullatif went home without money, without vegetable and tired, he told his mother what happened to him, because of his mother didn’t see Abdullatif lying to her in his life so she believed about what happened to Abdullatif, ” don’t go to the video game store again and I will try to save some money from your gain and your brothers’ gains to buy you video games, so you and your brothers can play inside home” his mother said to Abdullatif,,,,,
Abdullatif became happy and promised his mother to not go to video game store anymore,
Next day Abdullatif went to work but at noon police was looking for kids to take them again and collect kids from video games stores but one police saw Abdullatif setting behind bench and remembered his face that he was yesterday at police station so he came and took Abdullatif again to the police station, Abdullatif told police that he works and his family needs food and money but that policeman didn’t care about what he is saying, Abdullatif cried but merciless that policeman didn’t care,
However Adbullatif is cleaning up and washing police station again for free and for freedom, while he is working he saw small hole on the wall,
He decided to runaway from that hole on the wall and he did it but one police was guarding that hole in outside, Abdullatif was caught, then, police put him in room and started to beat him up and cut his hair in bad way as punishment for him, it is sunset time Abdullatif was released again but in this time he was tortured by policemen.

Time by time policemen come to take specially Abdullatif to make him work for free and poor Abdullatif obeys them because he doesn’t want to get tortured by police,

Abdullatif got bored of doing this for free, one day he bought small knife, he put that small knife in his pocket then came back to his bench to work after while police came to take him to wash police station, that merciless slapped Abdullatif , Abdullatif became very angry he pulled his knife and stabbed it to that merciless police’s leg hardly twice, other policemen started to beat up Abdullatif and they arrested him.

That merciless police lost his leg and Abdullatif went to jail for 3 years.