Federal prosecutors indicated Nov. 21 that they will drop manslaughter charges against a Blackwater Worldwide security guard who was involved in the September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad that killed 17 Iraqis. According to the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Channing Phillips, a motion was filed under seal to dismiss the charges against Nicholas Slatten. No reason was given as to why the indictment was being dismissed, but prosecutors asked that they be allowed to resubmit the charges at a later date if desired. Since the incident Blackwater has changed its name to Xe Services.

Britain's Ministry of Defense says it is launching an independent inquiry into allegations that soldiers tortured and killed Iraqi prisoners. The inquiry comes as a result of criticism by the High Court over an earlier investigation by the Royal Military Police that found allegations of abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners to be groundless.

The organization representing Iraq's Sunni religious leadership is the latest voice to protest the deal finalized last week between the Iraqi Oil Ministry and partners BP and the Chinese National Petroleum Corp. The statement from the Association of Muslim Scholars called the deal to develop the Rumaila field "at the very least suspicious." The Rumaila field currently produces just below 1 million barrels per day (bpd). Under the 20-year contract this figure is to be boosted to 2.85 million bpd within seven years. BP and CNPC would hold 75% of the project, with the Iraqi state owning 25%.

A front-page New York Times story Nov. 12 brings to light that veteran US diplomat Peter W. Galbraith, "a powerful voice on Iraq who helped shape the views of policy makers like Joseph R. Biden Jr. and John Kerry," stands to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan—thanks to broad Kurdish autonomy and control of subsoil resources that he helped craft and negotiate as an advisor to the Kurdish regional government as Iraq drafted its constitution.

From Human Rights Watch, Oct. 27:

Iraq: Protect Besieged Minorities
Yazidis, Shabaks, and Christians Caught in Kurdish-Arab Contest for Control
Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government should protect besieged minorities in the disputed territories of Nineveh province, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch documented attacks by Sunni Arab extremist groups targeting Yazidis, Shabaks, and Assyrian Christians, and intimidation by Kurdish forces against minority political and civic associations resisting Kurdish efforts to incorporate the area into the autonomous territory the regional government controls.

On Oct. 21, the federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia affirmed, in the well-known Blackwater/Xe case, that the murder of civilians in connection with an armed conflict overseas is actionable in a US court under the controversial Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789. The court relied on the universal acceptance, everywhere in the world, of Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits the murder of civilians in an armed conflict.

Drought has forced more than 100,000 people in northern Iraq to abandon their homes since 2005, with 36,000 more on the verge of leaving, UNESCO said this week. The four-year drought and excessive well-pumping have led to the collapse of an ancient system of underground aqueducts, or karez. Only 116 of 683 karez systems are currently operational, according to a study by the UN agency. The study finds 70% of active karez have dried up. (AP, Oct. 13)

From the Washington Blade, July 31:

A fundraising event to benefit an LGBT community center in Lebanon last week took a surprise turn when stunned audience members were shown graphic photographs of beheaded corpses and images purportedly depicting U.S. soldiers preparing to execute gay Iraqis.