Lynndie England Speech Canceled by Threats

Discussions with Baghdad 'are ongoing': spokesman

(NEWSER) - The Pentagon threw cold water on a story today that US troops are leaving Iraq by year's end, MSNBC reports. "Suggestions that a final decision has been reached about our training relationship with the Iraqi government are wrong," a Pentagon spokesman said. "Those discussions are ongoing." Earlier, the AP reported that Washington failed to renew its security agreement with Baghdad, and would pull out its 41,000 troops by Jan. 1 as planned. More»

Rumsfeld had pledged in 2004 to compensate the abused

(AP) - In 2004, a defensive Donald Rumsfeld told Congress that he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered "grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces." He continued, "It's the right thing to do. And it is my intention to see that we do." But six years later, the US Army is unable to document a single payment for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. More»

A milestone for sovereignty, challenge for the government

(NEWSER) - The last American-run prison in Iraq will be handed over to the Iraqis today, marking the end of a massive US prison system that has processed more than 100,000 Iraqis since the fall of Baghdad. Tariq Aziz and other former high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime were handed over to Iraqi authorities ahead of the changing of the guard at Camp Cropper. Around 200 detainees will remain in American hands until next year. More»

American, other delegations walk out of Iranian president's speech

(NEWSER) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ripped Israel and the US in his speech today before the United Nations General Assembly, even as Iran’s president said his country was ready to work for peace and would shake hands “honestly extended to us.” The US and other delegations walked out—in protest at the content and not, as with the earlier epic from Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, to take a break. More»

(NEWSER) - Lynndie England is trying to rebuild some semblance of a normal life, but her past continues to haunt her, she tells the AP. “It’s my face that's always recognized,” the former Army Reservist and poster child for Abu Ghraib abuse said of trying to get a job—or even just going to the store. “I can't really change that.” England has been unemployed since she got out of prison. “I sit at home all day.” More»