In June, I had the opportunity to interview Mohammed al-Dayni, an elected member of the Council of Representatives to the Iraqi Parliament and a collaborator of mine in an effort to negotiate a cease fire between Iraqi insurgents and the Coalition forces, who is now charged...

It has been 19 days since I first reported the situation of Iraqi Member of Parliament, Mohammed al-Daini. His nephew and bodyguard had been picked up. Then using their confessions, the Iraq Government charged Mohammed with being responsible for the April 12, 2007 suicide bombing in the Parliament cafeteria....

The United States may be leaving Iraq, but we should not be abandoning the Iraqi people. Particularly those who have put their lives on the line to rebuild their country in peace. Particularly someone like Mohammed al-Daini, a member of the Iraqi Parliament and critic of the Maliki government who...

Are you feeling frustrated? Would you like to get involved somehow in this Presidential campaign beyond writing a check for your favorite candidate?

Do you have some time and skills that might be employed to increase the probability that the next President's administration is comprised of the "best and...

If we did not have the Internet, the world would be falling into tyranny, rather than out of it. As the mega corporations gobble up all of the mainstream media outlets in the United States, the American people only hear the news that serves the corporate interest. (Today very few...

August 23, 2007

Bush says Iraqi government should do more, but its future is up to Iraq's people.

In Amman, Iraqi Nationalists were cheering. In Baghdad, Iraqis were shooting their guns into the sky celebrating what they read as a seismic shift in U.S. support of the despised Maliki Government....

Ambassador Margaret Scobey has been on special assignment to Iraq for a year.  In two weeks her mission is complete and she will return to Washington D.C. We did not record our conversation; thus, a transcript is not available.  This is regrettable since there were endless valuable nuances in what...

Mohammed al-Dynee, a member of Iraq's Parliament and I had our hour-long meeting in Baghdad with Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb and General Paul Newton moments after our fortuitous run in with General Petraeus in the hallway of the Embassy.  Lamb and his team are British and living proof that the...

For the past few months with the help of a friend of mine who has access to General Petreaus, the Commanding General of the Coalition Forces in Iraq, I have been trying to facilitate a meeting between him and Mohammed al-Dynee. For reasons unknown to me at the time, the...

Before I left for Baghdad, six members of the Iraq Parliament met at Mohammed's flat in Amman. Each was aligned with the moderate National Dialogue Front, a secular party promoting one Iraq, a scheduled withdrawal of American troops, and Iraqi control of Iraq's oil.

Present were:

• Dr. Saleh...

I was startled when Sheik Jawad Al-Khalisi told me that there would be civil war in Iraq not if the American troops leave but if they stay!

I wasn't sure I heard him correctly.

"If the Americans forces leave, are you saying there will...

Yesterday, I wrote about meeting with Sheik Hareth al-Dhari and began explaining how Iraqis see a distinct difference between the Resistance and terrorists. Today's blog looks at that difference in more detail.

Military Allies Itself with Insurgents

The American military is beginning to understand -- and capitalize on -- the...

When I wrote about meeting with an Iraqi who had some influence over the Iraqi Resistance, there was a loud outcry in some quarters. "Who was this Sheik," they wondered. "What was his agenda? Why aren't they saying more?"

Some said I was meeting with terrorists.

Nothing could be...

My third day full of meetings and hearing varying Iraqi perspectives continues. I've noticed in this short time - that seems quite long, actually - that two things in particular keep making their way into my brain.

First, I'm hearing the same things over and over, from varying segments of...

[This is the recounting of a second meeting I had on a Tuesday, June 5.]

After our grueling morning meeting (see yesterday's blog) a Kurdish man, whose name I cannot disclose to protect him, came to Mohammed's house. He walked in and seemed extremely nervous. He shook my hand...

Monday June 5, 2007 at Mohammed's House

Today, my first full day in Amman, Jordan started off sharply. I met the most important person I will meet during this trip. And I was the first American he has agreed to meet with.

This in itself shows that the winds are...

For those of you following the efforts to end the violence in Iraq, you are aware that Mohammed al-Daini (also spelled al-Dynee), a Nationalist member of the Iraq Parliament, came and stayed with me in Washington, D.C. for three weeks. We made the effort to bring an Iraqi official's point...

For the past two weeks, Mohammed al-Daini, a member of the Iraq Parliament, has been staying with me at my new place in Washington, DC. If you read the New York Times tomorrow, May 14, you'll learn why.

For each of the days he's been here, I've kept a log...

I receive daily reports from Iraqis who are following the horrible story. Read what Omar Ziada, an Iraqi, has to say about benchmarks:

By Omar Ziada

It seems that everyone these days is talking about benchmarks. Mr. Bush started it by setting out certain benchmarks for the Iraqi government to...

Nationalist Members seem to be targeted

Hours ago an explosion ripped through the cafeteria attached to the Iraq Parliament killing at least two members of Parliament and injuring fifteen others.

One of the members killed is Mohammed Awad, a nationalist who is part of the National Dialogue Front, a...