Sadrists Sign Oath to fight US Troops

Shiites from the Sadr Movement in Iraq have been signing oaths in blood to struggle against the foreign military occupation of their country. This ritual affirmation comes despite the command from Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr to lay down their arms. Sadr has also spoken of creating a special forces unit to kill US and other coalition troops, despite the cease-fire he affirmed between his Mahdi Army and the US and Iraqi forces. Al-Sadr had called for these pledges signed in blood, but appeared to see them as binding the signers to a non-violent struggle. This AFP article suggests most of the signers do not see it that way.

A Sunni Arab member of parliament said Friday that he does not expect Iraq and the US to sign a security agreement. He thinks too many insuperable obstacles stand in the way,including that of immunity for US troops in Iraqi courts.

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Kurdistan officials are complaining that the government of PM Nuri al-Maliki is marginalizing them.

The 11,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq, expelled from their homeland by the Israelis, now live in fear and some are dwelling in squalor in border camps. It is hell to be stateless-- and has disenfranchising consequences in the 21st century analogous to slavery in the eighteenth.

Speaking of slavery, Nepalese workers are suing Kellogg, Brown and Root for human trafficking, claiming that a subcontractor pressed them into involuntary labor in Iraq.

Sunni Arab Awakening Council members in Diyala Province are Complaining to the US military that the Iraqi Army is harassing them.

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the sermonizers at Friday prayers in Iraq on Saturday were pretty unanimous across age lines that the US must set a timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq..