President Obama met this afternoon with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

JAMES PAUL
Paul is executive director of Global Policy Forum and has written extensively on Iraq. He said today: “For all the talk of ‘U.S. withdrawal’ from Iraq, the reality on the ground is starkly different. U.S. troops still patrol the cities, in flagrant violation of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, while Washington remains hugely influential in the politics of the country. The gigantic U.S. embassy looms large in Baghdad, U.S. forces still hold thousands of Iraqi prisoners in the vast U.S. prison camp in the southern desert, dozens of U.S. military bases remain in place including the sprawling ‘Camp Victory’ complex in Baghdad and Washington continues to press towards its ultimate goal — the de facto privatization of Iraq’s vast oil resources.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167