I checked CNN and the lead item is Sheriff: 4 charged in killings over Xbox game system. It wouldn't appear that Iraq is spiralling out of control. Maybe they, and their viewers, ought to pay attention.

Marines Pushing Deeper Into City Held by Shiites

Marine commanders battling Moktada al-Sadr's rebel militiamen in this Shiite holy city said Saturday that the fighting had cleared the rebels from the ancient cemetery in the heart of the old city, but that more fighting lay ahead in the streets and alleyways nearby as an American-led offensive moved to the end of its third day.

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As usual, Juan Cole has the most insight on what is going on. Here are two...

US Attack "Uncivilized": Jafari
Fresh Violence in Sadr City
15 US Soldiers Wounded, 3 Dead in recent Fighting

Before I go over the details, here is my reading of what is going on in Najaf. The truce between the Mahdi Army and US/ Iraqi forces broke down because they had different ideas of what the truce entailed. US-appointed governor Adnan al-Zurufi had demanded that the Mahdi Army disarm and/or leave Najaf. Muqtada al-Sadr on the other hand interpreted the truce to entail limiting his militia's activities to certain areas of the city and to have them avoid clashes with police and US troops.

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Continued Shiite Clashes with US

AFP reports that hundreds of Najaf families streamed out of the city on Saturday, terrified of the heavy warfare being fought all around them. The US has aerially bombed Najaf cemetery and US tanks have targeted hotels in the city in an effort to get at the Mahdi army militiamen, of whom the US claims to have killed 300. This number has been challenged by the Sadrists, and local hospitals put the dead at closer to 76.

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In the midst of this Sistani has fled Iraq and is in England. Not good. Again, Juan Cole...

Sistani's Trip to the UK
Fayyad Likely Successor

Ma`d Fayyad of Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reveals some of the background to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's trip to the UK. He says that it has been in the works for some time, and that British authorities knew about the plan for the ayatollah to come to London as early as two weeks ago. He says that there was fear that Muqtada al-Sadr would have Sistani taken hostage, or that he might seek refuge in the grand ayatollah's house. (If those are the reasons for the trip, and if the British knew about it two weeks ago, that means that plans to come after Muqtada were made at least two weeks ago).

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And Riverbend (an Iraqi woman in Baghdad) brings her perspective...

Clashes and Churches...

300+ dead in a matter of days in Najaf and Al Sadir City. Of course, they are all being called ‘insurgents’. The woman on tv wrapped in the abaya, lying sprawled in the middle of the street must have been one of them too. Several explosions rocked Baghdad today- some government employees were told not to go to work tomorrow. So is this a part of the reconstruction effort promised to the Shi’a in the south of the country? Najaf is considered the holiest city in Iraq. It is visited by Shi’a from all over the world, and yet, during the last two days, it has seen a rain of bombs and shells from none other than the ‘saviors’ of the oppressed Shi’a- the Americans. So is this the ‘Sunni Triangle’ too? It’s déjà vu- corpses in the streets, people mourning their dead and dying and buildings up in flames. The images flash by on the television screen and it’s Falluja all over again. Twenty years from now who will be blamed for the mass graves being dug today? We’re waiting again for some sort of condemnation. I, personally, never had faith in the American selected proxy government currently pretending to be in power- but for some reason, I keep thinking that any day now- any moment- one of the Puppets, Allawi for example, will make an appearance on television and condemn all the killing. One of them will get in front of a camera and announce his resignation or at the very least, his utter disgust, at the bombing, the burning and the killing of hundreds of Iraqis and call for an end to it… it’s a foolish hope, I know. So where is the interim constitution when you need it? The sanctity of private residences is still being violated... people are still being unlawfully arrested... cities are being bombed. Then again, there really is nothing in the constitution that says the American millitary *can't* actually bomb and burn. Sistani has conveniently been flown to London. His ‘illness’ couldn’t come at a better moment if Powell et al. had personally selected it. While everyone has been waiting for him to denounce the bombing and killing of fellow-Shi’a in Najaf and elsewhere, he has come down with some bug or other and had to be shipped off to London for check-ups. That way, he can remain silent about the situation. Shi’a everywhere are disappointed at this silence. They are waiting for some sort of a fatwa or denouncement- it will not come while Sistani is being coddled by English nurses.

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Meanwhile, back in Iraq.....
by Steve Gilliard

While the US is distracted with the Presidential Campaign all hell is breaking loose in Iraq. Marines are now fighting street to street in Najaf, while Juan Cole says that if they kill Sadr, the next step could be Iran, 1978. Which is not good. Not good at all. What Cole means is that there could a mass uprising across Southern Iraq, and they could get help from their Iranian coreligionists. Help meaning guns and Basiji Revolutionary Guards. Which would make the Mahdi Army professional in ways the US would not want to deal with. [...] This is spinning wildly out of control. Sadr has the men in the street and the popular support. Sistani has the respect. But if Sistani is gone, his less moderate acolytes may well through their lot in with the Mahdi Army. The US can't stop this, they can't even walk around Sadr City. When they do, they get mobbed. The ultimate nightmare is the death of both Sadr and Sistani, which means either a quick alliance or nasty civil war. While the US has looked inwards, the situation in Iraq has gone from bad to night terrors. The handover has made things worse, not better. The bleeting of the right that accusing Allawi of extrajudicial murders has not helped matters. The Bushies wanted a simple solution to a complicated problem and they don't have it and aren't close to having it. What happens next?

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And the tortures and beatings continue. Tell me again how removing Saddam has made life so much for the Iraqis.

Ordered to Just Walk Away

From his post several stories above ground level, he watched as men in plainclothes beat blind folded and bound prisoners in the enclosed grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. He immediately radioed for help. Soon after, a team of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers swept into the yard and found dozens of Iraqi detainees who said they had been beaten, starved and deprived of water for three days. In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices - metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their back and legs. The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions. But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson's superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 - Iraq's first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S. invasion.

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The Theft of Iraq® continues unabated...

Empire Notes

The Post has a very long, comphrehensive, and important article in the evolving story of U.S. robbery of Iraqi money, with a good headline into the bargain -- $1.9 Billion of Iraq's Money Goes to U.S. Contractors.

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What About Iraq?
by Paul Krugman

A funny thing happened after the United States transferred sovereignty over Iraq. On the ground, things didn't change, except for the worse. But as Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect puts it, the cosmetic change in regime had the effect of "Afghanizing" the media coverage of Iraq. He's referring to the way news coverage of Afghanistan dropped off sharply after the initial military defeat of the Taliban. A nation we had gone to war to liberate and had promised to secure and rebuild - a promise largely broken - once again became a small, faraway country of which we knew nothing.

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