Baghdad Burning: "We?ve been hearing terrible stories about Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad for a while now, but those pictures somehow spoke like no words could."

Raed in the Middle: "The deep disagreement between AsSadr and the SCIRI is kind of historical, the older generation of both Sadr and Hakim were not the best friends ever, Mohammad Mohammad Sadiq AsSadr (the one assassinated in the late 90s, the father of Muqtada) used to criticize the general policy of SCIRI at his time, and some underground rumors accuses the Ayato Allah AlHakim (the one assassinated last year, the brother of the Current GC member AlHakim) of helping in a way or another in killing the old Sadr."

riverbend: I've been reading articles about Chalabi being (very hopefully) on his way out. I can't believe it took this long for Washington to come to the conclusion that he is completely useless. Did anyone there actually believe he was going to be greeted as the leader of a new era?

iraq, raed in the middle: "The Friday prayer at Najaf was very interesting and important today, the speeches of AsSadr and the Supreme council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) had a dramatic evolution, AsSadr threatens to start a Suiside Bombers War if Najaf was attacked, and I believe he can do a real REALY massive scale war using his militias of human bombs, and the SCIRI?s spokesman had a strong speech which can considered as an articulation in the Sadr-Hakim relationship, the speech criticized AsSadr and his Anti-American policy in a very strong way."

iraq, riverbend-blog: Still, when I hear talk about "anti-Americanism" it angers me. Why does American identify itself with its military and government? Why is does being anti-Bush and anti-occupation have to mean that a person is anti-American? We watch American movies, listen to everything from Britney Spears to Nirvana and refer to every single brown, fizzy drink as "Pepsi".

Iraq, riverbend-blog: "There's a sort of truce going on in Falloojeh but the problem is that we still here of people being killed on both sides and areas being bombed in the city. The refugees are still in Baghdad and neighboring cities. We heard that, for a couple of days, the troops were letting in around 80 families a day- now that number seems to have dwindled to 15 families a day. The refugees seem anxious to get back to their homes and many of them left behind family members in the city."