The Guardian article below indicates that of the five Britons seized, four are 'bodyguards' and "The bodyguards reportedly work for GardaWorld, a Canadian security company based in Montreal".

A spokewoman for Gardaworld said GardaWorld - which has hundreds of staff, mostly ex-military personnel, in Iraq - was involved in "risk mitigation" and security projects, adding: "We have a number of British people working as teams of specialists throughout Iraq." GardaWorld

ZNet | Iraq

by Gareth Porter; Inter Press Service; May 28, 2007

Nationalist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's bid to unite Sunnis and Shiites on the basis of a common demand for withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces, reported last weekend by the Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan, seems likely to get a positive response from Sunni armed resistance.

An account given Pentagon officials by a military officer recently returned from Iraq suggests that Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province, who have generally reflected the views of the Sunni armed resistance there, are open to working with Sadr.

Seymour Hersh - The New Yorker

In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Showtimes:

May 22 - 7pm
May 25 - 7pm

Brunswick Theatre
296 Brunswick Avenue (2nd Floor), Toronto Ontario

Toronto Premiere
With filmmaker David Martinez in person

A one hour documentary, not about soldiers, not about governments, but about Iraqi civilians and a handful of independent journalists in a country turned into hell. A cinema cerite narrative of daily life, disintegration, and the humor that ordinary people adapt when living in a war zone. Includes rare footage from inside besieged Fallujah, April 2004, and a Choubi music soundtrack provided by Sublime Frequencies. Unlike any Iraq movie you have seen.

by Pratap Chatterjee

May 05, 2007
Alternet
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The line of ships at the Al Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT) stretches south to the horizon, patiently waiting in the searing heat of the Northern Arabian Gulf as four giant supertankers load up. Close by, two more tankers fill up at the smaller Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT). Guarding both terminals are dozens of heavily-armed U.S. Navy troops and Iraqi Marines who live on the platforms.

ZNet | Iraq

by Robert Fisk; The Independent; April 13, 2007

Faced with an ever-more ruthless insurgency in Baghdad -- despite President George Bush's "surge" in troops -- US forces in the city are now planning a massive and highly controversial counter-insurgency operation that will seal off vast areas of the city, enclosing whole neighbourhoods with barricades and allowing only Iraqis with newly issued ID cards to enter. The campaign of "gated communities" -- whose genesis was in the Vietnam War -- will involve up to 30 of the city's 89 official districts and will be the most ambitious counter-insurgency programme yet mounted by the US in Iraq.

Seymour Hersh, the New Yorker

A STRATEGIC SHIFT

In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

ZNet | Iraq
by Patrick Cockburn; The Independent; January 27, 2007

Baghdad is paralysed by fear. Iraqi drivers are terrified of running into impromptu checkpoints where heavily armed men in civilian clothes may drag them out of their cars and kill them for being the wrong religion. Some districts exchange mortar fire every night. This is mayhem beyond the comprehension of George Bush and Tony Blair.

ZNet | Iraq

by Doug Ireland; DIRELAND; January 27, 2007

For the very first time, an official United Nations human rights report released last week has confirmed the "violent campaigns" against Iraqi gays and the "assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq."

"Attacks on homosexuals and intolerance of homosexual practices have long existed, yet they have escalated in the past year," says the latest bi-monthly Human Rights Report of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), released on January 16. "Islamic groups and militias have been known to be particularly hostile towards homosexuals, frequently and openly engaging in violent campaigns against them. There have been a number of assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq," the report says.

by Paul Craig Roberts

Is the surge an orchestrated distraction from the real war plan?

A good case can be made that it is. The US Congress and media are
focused on President Bush's proposal for an increase of 20,000 US
troops in Iraq, while Israel and its American neoconservative allies
prepare an assault on Iran.

Commentators have expressed puzzlement over President Bush's
appointment of a US Navy admiral as commander in charge of the ground

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132574.ece

Published: 07 January 2007

So was this what the Iraq war was fought for, after all? As the number
of US soldiers killed since the invasion rises past the 3,000 mark, and
President George Bush gambles on sending in up to 30,000 more troops,
The Independent on Sunday has learnt that the Iraqi government is about
to push through a law giving Western oil companies the right to exploit

ZNet | Iraq

by Canadian Arab Federation January 05, 2007

January 3, 2007 -- The execution of President Saddam Hussein is another crime that should be added to the growing list of crimes committed by the United States since it invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003.

The spectacle of President Saddam Hussein's execution, shown in pornographic detail to the whole world, was deeply shocking to those of us who respect propriety and human dignity. Saddam Hussein may have been "handed over to the Iraqi authorities" before his death, but his execution will go down - correctly - as a US crime.

by Jon Flanders

Was it only two days ago that we read the exultant news stories and saw the frenzied TV news coverage of the execution of Saddam Hussein? I know that I had to turn off CNN in revulsion as the evening progressed.

President Bush took time off from his chainsaw assaults on the underbrush of his Crawford Ranch to commend the Maliki government for its handling of the affair.

Counterpunch

By PATRICK COCKBURN

Iraq is rending itself apart. The signs of collapse are everywhere. In Baghdad the police often pick up over 100 tortured and mutilated bodies in a single day. Government ministries make war on each other. A new and ominous stage in the disintegration of the Iraqi state came earlier this month when police commandos from the Shia-controlled Interior Ministry kidnapped 150 people from the Sunni-run Higher Education Ministry in the heart of Baghdad.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2393399,00.html

Bob Woodward begins exclusive extracts from his new book, which is shaking the White House with its revelations of a dysfunctional presidency that ignored the truth about Iraq

In early January 2003, Jay Garner, a retired general, picked up an incoming call on his mobile phone from the Pentagon.

“We want to talk to you. Can you come over?”

What do you want to talk about? Garner asked.

“It’s a little sensitive on the phone.”

Garner found himself being hired by Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, to take over the post-war humanitarian mission after the imminent invasion of Iraq. He had been picked because in 1991 he had run Operation Provide Comfort, coming to the rescue of thousands of ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq after the Gulf war.

Garner thought he’d been recruited to play the role of a glorified chief of staff; but when he read the presidential directive setting up his new office, it took his breath away. It gave him responsibility for all the tasks normally run by national, state and local governments.

He found himself waking up at 2am, dictating to-do lists. He realised he had been given an impossible task, but the military man’s can-do attitude prevailed over doubt. “I thought this was going to be superhard,” he told me later. But, he added: “I never failed at anything.”

The following excerpt (dealing with the first part of 2006) is from the Epilogue to Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Noam Chomsky & Gilbert Achcar, edited with a Preface by Stephen R. Shalom, to be published by Paradigm Publishers September 15, 2006, Hardcover $22.95.

Q: The past few months in Iraq have seen widespread sectarian attacks. How do you assess the evolution of the situation? In particular, do you believe that a civil war is going on? Is the sectarian turmoil a reason to extend the stay of U.S. troops?

By Dahr Jamail
Tuesday 25 July 2006

"Habibi, to live in Baghdad now is to live in a big prison," he told me
recently, "You stay in your home, and that's it. You only go out when
you must. So many are being killed daily, and you only hope that your
day to die is not today."

While reporting from Damascus for nearly two weeks, I've worked with my
interpreter from Baghdad who came out to meet me, Abu Talat.

ZNet | Feminism/Gender

by Ruth Rosen; TomDispatch; July 13, 2006

Abu Ghraib. Haditha. Guantanamo. These are words that shame our country. Now, add to them Mahmudiya, a town 20 miles south of Baghdad. There, this March, a group of five American soldiers allegedly were involved in the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza, a young Iraqi girl. Her body was then set on fire to cover up their crimes, her father, mother, and sister murdered. The rape of this one girl, if proven true, is probably not simply an isolated incident. But how would we know? In Iraq, rape is a taboo subject. Shamed by the rape, relatives of this girl wouldn't even hold a public funeral and were reluctant to reveal where she is buried.

If wanton murder is essential to the US campaign in Iraq, it's time to leave

The reported atrocities by American soldiers are not isolated incidents but the inevitable offshoots of occupation

Gary Younge
Monday June 26, 2006
The Guardian

Every four years it's the same. The hand of God, the sending off, the miskick that finds only our net - the fluke that shatters the dream. Each World Cup some freakish incident dashes England's hopes with such predictable regularity that the only truly surprising thing is the surprise itself. Rather than resign ourselves to the fact that our national team is good, but not that good, we delve into the detail of each particular defeat as though it alone holds the key to us winning the trophy in four years' time.

By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 12 June 2006

Fearful residents are now pouring out of Ramadi after the US military
has been assaulting the city for months with tactics like cutting water,
electricity and medical aid, imposing curfews, and attacking by means of
snipers and random air strikes. This time, Iraqis there are right to
fear the worst - an all out attack on the city, similar to what was done
to nearby Fallujah.

It has always been just a matter of time before the US military would
finally get around to destroying Ramadi, the capital city of al-Anbar
province. After all, Ramadi is not far from Fallujah, and so similar to
Fallujah both tribally and in their disdain towards the idea of being
occupied, that many people in Ramadi even refer to Fallujah as "Ramadi."
I know many people from Ramadi who lost relatives and friends during
both US assaults on Fallujah, and the level of anti-American sentiment
has always been high there.

ZNet | Iraq

by Tom Engelhardt; TomDispatch; June 07, 2006

First news stories about the My Lai massacre (picked up from an army publicity release), March 1968: The New York Times labeled the operation a significant success: "American troops caught a North Vietnamese force in a pincer movement on the central coastal plain yesterday, killing 128 enemy soldiers in day-long fighting." United Press International called it an "impressive victory," and added a bit of patriotic color: "The Vietcong broke and ran for their hide-out tunnels. Six-and-a-half hours later, 'Pink Village' had become 'Red, White and Blue Village.'"

A DEDICATED PRESENCE IN IRAQ
Maclean's
May 29, 2006
COLIN CAMPBELL
Yes, Canada has troops there. And they've been around for a while.
Several times a year, a group of Canadians gets together at a place called the "Canadian building" in Baghdad. Tucked away in the relative safety of the guarded Green Zone, the building is actually Canada's soon-to-be-opened embassy in Iraq, staffed by a small number of Canadian consular officials. The informal parties are arranged by emails traded by Canadians who meet inside the Zone. Guests include security contractors, government officials, police officers -- a sampling of Canada's small but dedicated presence in Iraq.
From the very first days of the U.S.-led Iraq war, Canadians have been deeply involved: setting up crime-fighting units, working as engineers with coalition forces, serving with the UN, flying planes that help guide missile attacks, even fighting. There are anywhere from 100 to 200 working in the country. Iraq may be an unpopular, troubled conflict, but it is a place everyone, from soldiers to high-ranking officials, acknowledges Canada cannot, and has not, ignored.

ZNet | Iraq
by Mathieu Guidère and Peter Harling; Le Monde diplomatique; May 16, 2006

Descriptions of Iraq's armed opposition often divide it into a set of wholly independent categories which apparently do not have much in common. The categories include the patriotic former army officers, the foreign terrorists, the Sunni Arabs determined to regain power, the Muslims opposed to any kind of foreign occupation, the tribal factions pursuing their own specific vendettas, the die-hard Ba'athists -- and the "pissed-off" Iraqis (in coalition soldier jargon, POIs) who are simply sick of the foreign forces occupying their country.

A Public Forum on Iraq, the US Army, and the anti-war Movement with Former US Army Reserve Specialist and Abu Ghraib witness, Aidan Delgado, and US War Resister, Joshua Key.

When: Saturday 1 April, 6:30pm
Where: University of Toronto Bahen Center, 40 St. George Street, Room 1130
Admission is Free

*What is the real story of what happened at Abu Ghraib?
*What is the situation of the US military currently in Iraq?
*How are US soldiers opposed to the war organizing among returned veterans and the broader anti-war movement?
*How can we strengthen solidarity with US war resisters seeking asylum in Canada?

Six Nations native protesters lock arms at a mass rally yesterday to stop housing construction on land they say still belongs to them.

No showdown with police at native rally to stop builders

By Paul Legall
The Hamilton Spectator
CALEDONIA (Mar 23, 2006)

More than a hundred native women including powerful clan mothers locked arms in a
human chain to block a police arresting party that never happened.

By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 14 March 2006

Why does the Bush Administration refuse to discuss withdrawing occupation forces from Iraq? Why is Halliburton, who landed the no-bid contracts to construct and maintain US military bases in Iraq, posting higher profits than ever before in its 86-year history?

Why do these bases in Iraq resemble self-contained cities as much as military outposts?

by Basav Sen, Hope Chu

While the three-year U.S. occupation of Iraq faces a quagmire in operations, the economic forces of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are moving full speed ahead implementing various economic reforms that will cause U.S.-based corporations - Bechtel, Halliburton, and others - to proclaim, "Mission Accomplished!" As the Bush administration touts its rhetoric of freedom and liberation, the IMF and World Bank are busily "liberating" Iraq’s resources - oil and labor - and "freeing" Iraq’s markets. The recent rise in fuel prices in Iraq and the subsequent riots are just a glimpse of what the future holds for Iraq under IMF and World Bank plans.

Doug Lorimer

Faik Bakir, the director of the Baghdad morgue, has fled Iraq in fear of his life after reporting that more than 7000 people have been killed by Iraqi interior ministry death squads in recent months, John Pace, the outgoing head of the UN human rights office in Iraq, told the March 2 British Guardian.

Pace said the Baghdad morgue has been receiving 700 or more bodies a month. The figures peaked at 1100 last July — many showing signs of torture.

by Rahul Mahajan; Empire Notes; March 03, 2006

Iraq has just gazed into the abyss and recoiled -- for now.

Last Wednesday's destruction of the beautiful golden dome of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra, one of the four most important Shi'a shrines in the world and final resting place of two of the twelve Shi'a Imams, brought Iraq closer to civil war than it has been since 1991, when a major popular uprising imperiled Saddam's regime.

By Phyllis Bennis and Erik Leaver; Institute for Policy Studies; February 28, 2006

· It remains unclear who was responsible for the attack on the golden-domed Askariya Shi'a mosque in Samarra. In the two days following the bombing over 200 Iraqis were killed, and the country was put under a day-and-night curfew.

· The spike in sectarian violence does not reflect a sudden danger of civil war. Rather, if it continues to escalate it may lead to a shift from the existing low-intensity political civil war between supporters (reluctant or not) of the U.S. occupation and opponents of that occupation, to a civil war identified largely along sectarian lines.