http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14604360/

Iraq Deaths Multiply in New August Count

By RAWYA RAGEH
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Updated figures from Iraq’s Health Ministry show there was no significant decline in violent deaths in Baghdad last month, but the U.S. military insisted Thursday that the murder rate in the capital had fallen by 52 percent.

Baghdad recorded more than 1,500 violent deaths in August, according to final figures released this week by the Health Ministry. The final count was roughly the same as the figure the ministry released for July, before the U.S.-led security crackdown began in the Baghdad area.

The final figure also was nearly three times the preliminary count released by the same ministry last week.

If accurate, the final figures cast doubt on U.S. and Iraqi claims of a significant reduction in the level of violence here since the crackdown was launched Aug. 7.

Asked about the latest Iraqi figures Thursday, U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson referred The Associated Press to a statement on a U.S. military Web site, which said the murder rate in Baghdad dropped 52 percent from the daily rate for July.

“The violence Baghdad endured in July receded during the month of August,” the statement added. “Attacks in Baghdad were well below the monthly average for July.”

Deputy Health Minister Hakem al-Zamly this week put the August violent death count for Baghdad at 1,536, based on figures from the city morgue.

However, preliminary Health Ministry figures released last week showed violent deaths in August in Baghdad at just 550, according to Dr. Riad Abdul Amir of the ministry’s statistics bureau.

Iraqi officials could provide no explanation for the difference between the preliminary and final August figures, but it could have resulted in part from a late August surge in deaths. More than 250 people were killed in Baghdad in the final week of the month.

Efforts by the AP to contact Amir on Thursday for an explanation were unsuccessful.

Accurate figures on the number of people who have died since the Iraq conflict began in March 2003 have long been difficult to obtain. The Health Ministry relies on reports from government hospitals and morgues.

Poor phone lines and shortages of trained staff and computers can delay entering death reports into databases, which means the preliminary count may have lagged sharply.

But accurate figures are important because Iraqi and U.S. officials _ anxious to demonstrate progress as support for the war declines in the U.S. _ have used them to claim success in curbing violence in Baghdad.

Last month, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said the murder rate in Baghdad fell by 46 percent from July to August.

Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie insisted last week that execution-style killings and sectarian violence had dropped by 45 percent in the last six weeks.

I think The USA is planning to attack Iran.

GO TO A WORLD CAN’T WAIT MEETING TOMORROW

http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php

Try to stop world war three.

Here are two frightening and mostly accurate pessimistic analyses

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14860.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14862.htm

George try the debate, you might even succeed at a major POSITIVE for the USA people.  Otherwise we are holding our grade @ F in the grade books for YOU. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060906/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_us_debate

Ahmadinejad proposes debate with Bush

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 15 minutes ago
TEHRAN, Iran -      Iran’s president proposed Wednesday that he and     President Bush should hold a public debate, and suggested that the U.N. General Assembly later this month would be the perfect place.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first proposed last month that he and Bush should debate, and the White House had dismissed the idea, saying it was a “diversion” from the concerns the international community has about Iran’s nuclear program.

In a speech to a religious conference, Ahmadinejad said the U.N. would allow Americans and people around the world to watch and listen to such a debate without censorship, according to his official Web site.

In his latest overture, Ahmadinejad said Bush would be able to bring advisers to the debate.

“We are ready to discuss the ways of managing the world for achieving justice, peace, friendship and removing violations and threats,” he said in the speech, according to the Web site.

“We proposed the debate to say that the period of bullying has expired, but false advocators of democracy avoided it because of their arrogance and lack of logic,” Ahmadinejad also said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General     Kofi Annan, said he had “no particular comment” about Ahmadinejad’s offer, although the secretary-general supports efforts to resolve differences over Iran’s nuclear program.

Dujarric demurred when reporters asked if the September meeting, known as the General Debate, would be a suitable place for such a debate.

“I’m just not going to go down this road, I’ve decided,” Dujarric said.

The     United Nations headquarters has no formal debating facility, although one of its numerous conference rooms could certainly be used.

On Tuesday, Bush said a nuclear-armed Iran would raise a mortal threat to the American people and would blackmail the free world.

“I am not going to allow this to happen,” Bush said in a speech on terrorism. “And no future American president can allow it, either.”

Iran faces the threat of sanctions after refusing a demand from the     U.N. Security Council to halt its uranium enrichment program.

Tehran insists that its nuclear activities are designed to produce civilian power and are within its rights. But Washington and other nations fear it is seeking nuclear weapons.

Russia and China, which are both veto-wielding members of the Security Council and have key trade ties with Tehran, have urged patience with Iran. European nations remain hesitant to call a halt to three years of talks, with Britain the firmest backer of the U.S. drive for punitive measures.

bush is working for the mullahs of iran—they promised to buy him another hog farm that he could disguise as a ranch