Epstein Secrets

500,000 US troops to the kingdom to expel Saddam Hussein's forces from neighboring Kuwait. In the eyes of

-up to his 2010 reelection bid, Maliki's Electoral Commission disqualified more than 500, mostly Sunni, candidates on charges that they had ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. For the Obama administration, however, tangling with Maliki meant investing time and energy in Iraq, a country it desperately wanted t

Magazine that appears under the eye-catching headline, "The Man Who Broke the Middle East." The man in question is not Sykes or Picot or Nasser or Saddam or Khomeini or George W. Bush or Noun al-Maliki, but Barack Obama. I often agree with Elliott, but I could not let this one go by without a respons

polls in March 2010, they gave a narrow plurality to the Iraqiya List, an alliance of parties that enjoyed significant Sunni support but was led by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite. Under pressure from Maliki, however, an Iraqi judge allowed the prime minister's Dawa Party— which had finished a close second—to

refuge in the Kurdish-controlled part of Iraq. The Kurds, who have until recently despised the Sunni Arabs for their persecution of the Kurds under Saddam Hussein, are now making amends. They are also closely aligning with Turkey to balance Iranian influence inside Iraq. Turkish-Iranian rivalry in the Fertil

i Arabs for their persecution of the Kurds under Saddam Hussein, are now making amends. They are also cl

00229072 EFTA01842271 Hamas of contradictions Hussein Ibish Article 7. NYT Next Up: Turkey vs. Iran

ections in 2005, Iran has supported the Shiite-backed Dawa party of Nun Kamal al- Maliki, while Turkey has backed the secular pan-Iraqi movement of Ayad Allawi. Following months of contention after the 2010 elections, Maliki formed a government in Baghdad, scoring a victory for Tehran. Maliki has cracked

in northern Iraq, and Tikrit, the home of Saddam Hussein's clan, and they have laid siege to Samarra, the

in northern and western Iraq, the insurgents control much EFTA00706969 of Mosul, the most important city in northern Iraq, and Tikrit, the home of Saddam Hussein's clan, and they have laid siege to Samarra, the site of one of Shiism's most storied shrines. It would be no surprise if the next few weeks brought t

ica's nominal ally, Saudi Arabia. As a result, a Sunni-Shiite regional conflict has been escalating over the past decade. There was no Al Qaeda in Saddam's Iraq. The United States birthed it through the invasion. It then beat Al Qaeda down, before allowing its affiliates to regroup by leaving and doi

e. Contrary to the constitution, the party that won the largest number of seats in the 2010 election—the secular and cross-sectarian Iraqiya led by Ayad Allawi—was not allowed to form the government. Instead, in a deal backed by the United States and Iran, Prime Minister Maliki remained the country's prime