Iraq events: 29 Nov 2006

- Islamemo now con­firmed that Abu-Deraa was killed yes­ter­day with 20–25 mem­bers of his bodyguards.

They also reported that 25 US sol­diers were killed in Haditha –Anbar province– in a three car bombs.

- About Sad­dam trial yes­ter­day I know that many peo­ple read the head­line only and didn’t read the details, be sure you don’t miss this line:

Badie Aref [He is Tarik Aziz attor­ney also], who is defend­ing for­mer mil­i­tary intel­li­gence chief Farhan Al Juburi, make an appear­ance in court.

Aref said that dur­ing the recess, US offi­cials came to his office and told him that he had the power to con­vict or acquit his defen­dant, and spec­i­fied which defense wit­nesses he should use in the trial.

“This is forc­ing us to do some­thing that the occu­pa­tion wants,” he told the court.

And yes he was arrested today

- Accord­ing to reli­able Iraqi sources in Lon­don and Amman. that James Baker, for­mer Sec­re­tary of State and for­mer Chair­man (Iraq Study Group), had told one of Saddam’s lawyers dur­ing a meet­ing in Amman recently that Tariq Aziz, for­mer Iraq Deputy Prime Min­is­ter, will be released from prison at the end of this year, in the hope of lead­ing the nego­ti­a­tions with the United States on behalf of the of Baath Party in Iraq.

- Iraqi sources revealed that inten­sive con­tacts between num­ber of Iraqi par­ties to with­draw from the ongo­ing polit­i­cal process and the for­ma­tion of the National Sal­va­tion Front.

For­mer Iraqi Prime Min­is­ter Iyad Allawi, Leader of the National Dia­logue Front Dr. Saleh Almtalk, and the head of the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and lib­er­a­tion Party Mashaan al-Jabouri among the participants.

- azza­man reported:

Anti-U.S. rebels dom­i­nate Baquba

Life has come to a stand­still in the restive city, north­east of Bagh­dad, and most parts of the province.

Both U.S. and Iraqi troops are said to have failed in attempts to restore order.