Meet the “Dirty Brigades” – The U.S. Trained and Funded Iraqi Soldiers Accused of War Crimes

iraq_fixed

Meet the “Dirty Brigades” – The U.S. Trained and Funded Iraqi Soldiers Accused of War Crimes (Liberty Blitzkrieg, March 12, 2015):

U.S.-trained and armed Iraqi military units, the key to the American strategy against ISIS, are under investigation for committing some of the same atrocities as the terror group, American and Iraqi officials told ABC News. Some Iraqi units have already been cut off from U.S. assistance over “credible” human rights violations, according to a senior military official on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

The U.S. is shipping almost $1 billion in weapons, as well as providing U.S. military trainers to instruct new Iraqi recruits. A special operations official in Baghdad, however, said it’s the government of Iraq that decides — not the Pentagon — which Iraqi units get U.S.-donated weapons, such as 43,000 M4 rifles and thousands of other light infantry weapons Congress approved for shipment in December.

“Ministry of Interior officials tortured detainees to death, according to reports from multiple government officials and human rights organizations,” read the annual report. The Bureau explicitly fingered the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces and Interior Ministry’s special police units — which the U.S. established, trained and armed from 2003-2011, and whose troops are seen in many of the atrocities images.

From the ABC News article: ‘Dirty Brigades’: US-Trained Iraqi Forces Investigated for War Crimes

This is another one of those “you can’t make this stuff up” articles, which perfectly highlights the complete idiocy and incompetence of American foreign policy. It’s no wonder nothing gets better, considering the corrupt status quo continues to merely rotate the same empty suits between various positions of power (see:Jeb Bush Exposed Part 1 – His Top Advisors Will Be the Architects of His Brother’s Iraq War). It’s literally like giving people with the mental capacity and wisdom of an infant, nuclear weapons and telling them to go crazy.

Read moreMeet the “Dirty Brigades” – The U.S. Trained and Funded Iraqi Soldiers Accused of War Crimes

From the Palm Islands to Emirates Bank, grand Dubai, United Arab Emirates, feels the economic crunch


From the Palm Islands to Emirates Bank, grand Dubai, United Arab Emirates, feels the economic crunch

They were heralded as “The 8th Wonder of the World” by numerous travel sites. They required a staggering $60 billion to construct, according to their developers. They attracted A-List celebrities from the Jolie-Pitts to the Beckhams to Lindsay Lohan. They were, in fact, “one of the most enterprising and ambitious ventures to ever have been imagined,” according to travel Web site Destination 360.

“They” are the epic Palm Islands, a series of three man-made islands in the shape of a palm tree, that along with the surrounding city of Dubai, were considered the “it” playground to the stars, a chic status-symbol to the rich, and a mammoth, epic, super-expensive, luxury landmark to the rest of us.

When you”re this high, you”ve got a long way to fall… And fall they have.

Yes, the global recession seems to be official, as the Palm Islands and Dubai have smacked into economic trouble, according to numerous published reports.

“It is clear that tens of thousands have left, real estate prices have crashed and scores of Dubai”s major construction projects have been suspended or cancelled,” the New York Times reports.

And the Palm Islands themselves? Not looking so good. The Mirror reports that the islands” real estate values have plummeted – by about half. Properties that were selling for about $4.5 million are now going for around $2.3 million. Probably not welcome news to celebs like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie who own property there, the paper reports.

But it gets worse. Real estate developer, Nakheel, maker of Dubai”s Palm Islands, has suffered recent layoffs, according to ABC News. The Guardian reports that the third of the Palm Islands, the Palm Deira, which was previously under construction, is on hold, and VIrtualTripping.com reports that it is downsizing in scale.

Read moreFrom the Palm Islands to Emirates Bank, grand Dubai, United Arab Emirates, feels the economic crunch

Gulf central banks urged to sever links with tumbling US dollar

Pressure is mounting on central banks in the Gulf to fight surging inflation when they meet on Wednesday by severing the link between their currencies and the tumbling US dollar.Officials in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have denied rumours of an imminent decoupling, but investors are betting on reform and are rushing to buy local currencies as investment banks issue fresh calls for revaluation.

Read moreGulf central banks urged to sever links with tumbling US dollar