they are officially active in baghdad and around baghdad. as far as disputed area because of the lapse of the iraqi army -- collapse of the iraqi army, there are vacuums. the disputed area, according to the iraqi constitution, is completely under the control of the kurdish forces. this is a new reality. we have got three states within one. three states with different systems. one is islamist and internationalist because they do not recognize the border. they are targeting baghdad, they are targeting mosques, they are targeting beirut. there targeting jordan and kuwait, for the time being. i think they will target kurdistan and other areas. that is their program, that is their plan. we have got kurdistan, which is secure, which believes in democracy, tries to build a democratic process, believes in multiethnic society, believes in multireligious society, believes in human rights, believes in women's rights. this is next to a so-called islamic state. our border now is with an islamic state and not anymore with iraq. we have got a border of abo

right now it is tied to baghdad to the central government with more authority were baghdad, though that's not what the constitution calls for. but with some autonomy the kurds would gain more authority over their own affairs. what does that mean? it includes selling oil without the consent of the federal government. but still sharing some of these revenues with baghdad. conducting other affairs such as maintaining it's defense forces. such as keeping and main tag its finances. and conducting more diplomatic missions abroad. >> alec, a central government has contributed to the kurds' ability to gain ground, literally, as well as politically. how much is the fractured government affecting the kurdish cause? it's not really an issue of a fractured government in baghdad. it's the fact that it has not really respected iraq's constitution. prime minister maliki has not, for example, implemented article 140 of the constitution, which calls for the resolution of the disputed internal boundaries areas that are both mixed. he has used iraq's great oil wealth as an economic weapon as saddam hussein

so they are officially active in baghdad and around baghdad. and there's a disputed area because of the collapse of the iraqi army, our kurdish fighters they fall in vacuum. that means that disputed area now, disputed area according to the iraqi constitution is completely under the control of kurdish. this is a new reality. we have got, in fact, three states within one. three states within a different system. is islamist. and specialist because they don't recognize the border. and they are targeting baghdad. they are targeting damascus. they are targeting beirut and targeting jordon and kuwait for the time being. and later on, i think they will target kurdistan and other areas. that's their program. that's their plan. we have got kurdistan which is secure which tries to build a democratic process. believed in multiette inic society -- multiethnic society. believes in women's rights. this is next to so-called islamic fate. our border is with islamic state. and not anymore with iraq. we have got a border of about 1,000 with islamic states from 1,

baghdad claims the kurds owe them money. kurds claim that baghdad owes them money. in that space is where a deal lies. i think that's going to be part of the conversation in forming a new government. >> if it is true baghdad owes them as much as $6 billion, with u.s. support kurds ability to export oil and obtain that revenue so they can keep themselves going? >> we want to get as much oil on to international markets as possible from all parks of iraq. that is something we very strongly support we worked very hard over the last six months to get a deal on the table by which the kurds would have exported as much oil as they possibly could through some of the existing arrangements with the revenue-sharing allocations that exist. that deal almost succeeded, but it ran up against the election time frame. once with the election it was difficult to close the deal. i think we'll be able to get that back on the table we want as much oil on iraq as soon as possible. >> i appreciate the fact we are going through assessments and studying the problem. i want -- you have to reco

baghdad claims the kurds owe them money. the kurds claim that baghdad owes them money. and in that -- in that space is where a deal lies. and i think that's going to be part of the conversation informing a new government. >> if it is true that baghdad owes them as much as $6 billion, would the u.s. support the kurds' ability to export oil and obtain that revenue so they can keep themselves going? >> we want to get as much oil on to international markets as possible from all parts of iraq. and that's something that we very strongly support. we worked very hard over the last six months to get a deal on the table by which the kurds would have exported as much oil as they possibly could through some of the existing arrangements with the revenue-sharing allocations that exist. and that deal almost succeeded, but it ran up again the election time frame. once in the election, it was very difficult to close a deal. i think we'll be able to get that back on the table. we want as much oil from iraq, north to south, on to international markets as soon as possible. >> okay. now --

life as the conflict approaches baghdad.e will also be joined by patrick cockburn, just back from iraq. this is democracy now! back in a moment. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. , whouests are hannah allam is in baghdad, and patrick cockburn joins us from london, middle east correspondent for the independent and just returned from 10 days of reporting in iraq and has a new book just coming out called, "the jihadis return: isis and the new sunni uprising." patrick, you and your latest piece say that as much as the world attention is focused on the bombardment of gaza, that isis has captured much of eastern syria. can you explain? caliphate declared to recently has just gotten a lot bigger. and rather amazingly, the world hasn't paid much attention because of gaza. toward a bigacked province with a lot of oil wells in eastern syria. they probably hold about 98% of it now. whichof the capital city is run by the al-assad government. otherw

baghdad claims the kurds owe them money. kurds claim that baghdad owes them money. in that space is where a deal lies. i think that's going to be part of the conversation in forming a new government. >> if it is true baghdad owes them as much as $6 billion, with u.s. support kurds ability to export oil and obtain that revenue so they can keep themselves going? >> we want to get as much oil on to international markets as possible from all parks of iraq. that is something we very strongly support we worked very hard over the last six months to get a deal on the table by which the kurds would have exported as much oil as they possibly could through some of the existing arrangements with the revenue-sharing allocations that exist. that deal almost succeeded, but it ran up against the election time frame. once with the election it was difficult to close the deal. i think we'll be able to get that back on the table we want as much oil on iraq as soon as possible. >> i appreciate the fact we are going through assessments and studying the problem. i want -- you have to reco

baghdad.t baghdad. thd we have [inaudible]h so this is a new reality. and what are we going to do. first target is to defend ourst. world so that we have forces would stay on the border to defend and from any islamic or t terrorist group. the second target is to protect our population and people with the full command and some arabs are there and also the muslims and the christians and others in the society and we arethis i protecting those people. and the third one is to help frome refugees who are coming by the thousands. thousands of people are runninge coming to the country and thousands of people coming as well and almost all of them are trying to reach the area and we are talking about 1 million people in this place. now have and now we have a population of about 70 million people and we are now responsible to take care of cell -- 7 million people, the kurds and also managing security. and this is a new reality. but there is also a new reality in baghdad that had a new quality process and

to baghdad were bolstered. he made concern our people were safe, including contractors who were evacuated with the iraqi airforce help. at the embassy and airport we e rebalanced staff and brought in additional security. we worked to improve our intelligence picture throughout western and north central iraq and establishing joint operation center and forces to assist iraqi units around the capital. they were taken with regional diplomacy led by secretary kerry to focus attention on the serious threat. we recognized this took place following national elections in which 14 million iraqis voted but prior to forming a new government. a few speaker of parliament was chosen last week and he is a moderate sunni who was elected with overwhelmingly support. today, the new iraqi parliament elected the next president of iraq and he was elected with support from all components in the elected parliament. they are now choosing a prime minister which must happen within 15 days. as the president said, it isn't the place of the

were, in fact, part of the baghdad government. it was made worse by successive iraqi government which tried to fit into an arab quality which they do not fit. by the time we got to the 1970s we had in fact a fascist arab ruling the party. which if you are a curd therefore not an arab it's very difficult to consider yourself a part being a citizen of an arab fascist state. of course, it's the same fascist party that ruled iraq and ruled the arab of syria. in the 1970s no one would have thought to divide up iraq. well, in fact, starting in the 1960s and even before that in the 1930s the kurds had been in rebellion, and were put down quite brutally in the 1970s by saddam hussein. the problem is we have failed to create in iraq and i dare say in syria and other country in the middle east regardless of ethnicity and back ground, do they feel they're invested as full citizens. failure to do that, and i agree that nouri al-maliki has exacerbated those problems in iraq over the four or five years. the failures are something that makes eve

now he's been sending government forces in the problems of primarily sunni neighborhoods in baghdad as well as in towns like allusion to detain sunni's and holding them in secret prisons a lot of this is come out over the years many years since he's been in power human rights watch has done reports on it as has amnesia and the senior national on his secret detention facilities around baghdad and this escalated to a point where beginning in late two thousand and twelve sunni populations in our province as well as parts of baghdad and much of the rest of iraq every friday started holding demonstrations against the government they were peaceful demonstrations but maliki decided to start sending in the military and security forces and actually killing a lot of the protesters. because i'm in that frame where the by the middle of last year we had attacks against government forces start in the same sunni areas they weren't able to keep a lid on the resistance that was growing within the sunni population and so that escalated things to a point where we had a very large amount of the sunni popu

backing maliki in baghdad whom they given they've sold over twenty five billion dollars and counting of military training and weaponry so the u.s. is literally pouring fuel into both sides of the on a daily basis. but isis isn't as strong as it is without that direct and indirect support on the ground in syria so when they come into iraq where there's a very fertile sunni population extremely angry completely politically disenfranchised their leadership is not asking them to fight but then you bring this radical group in who's taking the fight directly to any shia they can find. particularly maliki's forces in baghdad so that's why they've automatically had this grassroots support so huge cities like col a far others like lose your ramadi samarra and then all the smaller villages in between are just literally they're being welcomed in because people are being attacked by the government all the sudden there's this force coming in and it's fighting back so of course they're having popular support over broad swaths of the country right and earlier this month secretary defense chuck hage

baghdad? >> that's not the mission. the mission is security assistance for our property and also to assist and advise the iraqi security force. that's the job. >> we want to talk mosh about this. when we come back, we'll be talking about the front runner to replace iraq's prime minister. he is the same man who fanned the flames that actually ignited the iraq war. >> very well. ♪ f provokes lust. ♪ it elicits pride... ...incites envy... ♪ ...and unleashes wrath. ♪ temptation comes in many heart-pounding forms. but only one letter. "f". the performance marque from lexus. that's why i take doctor recommended colace capsules. [ male announcer ] for certain medical conditions where straining should be avoided, colace softens the stool for effective relief from occasional constipation. go to colacecapsules.com for savings. for effective relief from occasional constipation. where its biggest refinery has been attacked. more chaos over there means higher prices here but we can take control with renewa

how close are sort of these forces to baghdad now? >> these sources are, forces are forming something of a uh shape, a u shape around baghdad. they are quite close, about 100 miles to the north in the city of tikrit. >> to the west, close, the closest city being -- which -- and they are quite close to baghdad in the south, and there have been clashes there, where abu ghraib is the huge, where the u.s. forces were seen torturing and harassing prisoners, that prison has been evacuate add couple of months ago because of how close the militants were coming so they are really pretty close to the city, the thing is that baghdad is not like -- the islamic state which is known at isis was able to take, because baghdad is quite a large shiite population and not really possible for this militia to move in quite as easily into baghdad as they did in mosul and some of the cities to the north. >> matt, we understand there have been some, some successes by government forces. what is the reality, at least the way it feels there in the streets? you k

the assessment assessed every unit around baghdad. without getting into the details, some units are infiltrated and dangerous. some are very capable and effective and have close relationships with us. >> i wanted to get to a broader question. you touched upon it in your statement and do more so in the written statement you submitted. here is the question we get. people are outraged by what's happening, especially reports about the different things isil is doing. by no means is this a group popular. americans understand this is a terrible, radical group of violent individuals. that being said, public opinion polls and just from the phone calls we get in ours of officee attitude of the american public, it's a mess, let them figure it out. i personally said this is not about iraq but the long-term security of the united states and the threat that isil poses to the u.s., especially if they are able to establish a safe haven of operations similar to what al qaeda did. even worse than what al qaeda was able to do in afghanistan. i was hopin

they have their sights set on baghdad. ist cyst made up of bad outlaws and a hearing i held on this issue last week our witnesses were unanimous in the belief that prime minister maliki just cannot lead iraq out of this crisis. he needs to go. the sooner, the better. the united states should not strengthen maliki's hand for military assistance. that's not the answer. i want to know what the plan is to prevent the vise of isil. mending relations with the saudis would be a good place to start and finally they are still held hostage in iraq. i want to know why we have failed to settle them in third countries including our own while the u.s. has people in liberty have been murdered. i yield back. >> go to brad sherman from california, ranking member. >> we see emerging from beirut and infertile where militias loyal to ethnic or religious groups are more powerful than governments where there is warfare, but even when there is peace it's an unstable peace with militias in real control no matter what the map says by nation states

. >> we flew on a c-130 into baghdad. the thing that was striking to us was the fact that a lot of the buildings were on fire. >> narrator: baghdad had been burning for one month. >> there'd be buildings on fire. the fires would just have to burn themselves out because there was no fire department. >> there was no government. there were no police. the army was gone. >> narrator: as they drove into the city, bremer made a decision and promptly announced it to his new staff. >> i did one thing that wasn't very smart, which was suggest to the staff meeting that i thought we should shoot the looters, that our military should have authority to shoot the looters, which they did not have at that time. >> his point was you only needed to shoot a few of them to make that point and the looting would stop. >> it wasn't very smart to do because somebody on the staff immediately told the press that i had suggested shooting the looters, and we had a problem. >> narrator: military commanders refused to go along with bremer's idea. >> we

the iraqi kurds, that's what they're looking for from baghdad. whenever the political upheaval dies down in baghdad, when they see maliki as prime minister. >> my son often asks me, when things like this happen in egypt or syria, what is it that you would like to happen? what makes sense? >> we would like stability. we need stability. and we continue allow a major terrorist group, the most successful in modern times to have safe haven in iraq. whether it's in the desert or the cities. we can't allow isis to control large territories, that's one, and secondly, as you point out, the 6th largest producer of oil in the world. and oil reserves in the world, we can't allow that to be reachable by terrorists. jordan is an ally, and turkey is a nato partner, and isis threatens all of them. >> all of them. i think they have made a tactical mistake by declaring the leader, i think it's overreach. and that's going to turn off a lot of iraqis and sunnis. it's one thing to claim you're fighting for religion. but you take on a religious despot. because this gu

the security situation in baghdad worsens to the point where large scale evacuations of u.s. personnel are required. these news forces, we are told, scott, will not participate in any way in the intelligence gathering or battlefield advising that the 300 green barretts the president ordered to iraq are now providing. >> pelley: major, we mentioned 11 days ago the president said we were sending in 300 advisors, now that number is doubling to troops equipped for combat. what has changed in that period of time? >> reporter: well, those 11 days ago, scot, the white house was concerned whether or not baghdad would fall completely to these insurgents. that's no longer the concern, but there is rising concern about the security of u.s. personnel and officials here tell us the president wants to be positioned militarily to protect u.s. personnel in the embassy and if necessary if they are moved anywhere outside baghdad or out of the country entirely because the situation in baghdad has deteriorated rapidly. >> pelley: major garrett, thank you very much. the u.s. forces are helping ir

that i think was a shock in mosul and baghdad and washington. i was shocked by it but as i drive it down -- drive around baghdad or basra or their other places of last year to checkpoint army. i have said that. indeed you cannot take on an isis if you have been in static positions are on the defense and not trained for offensive operations. what is troubling is the troubling is you right up to these army checkpoints and there she is religious banners across baghdad and certainly in basra. so there must be a fundamental change in the nature of these forces and not only the governments but the forces to allow participation by sunni and in this unified effort that we require. >> i appreciate your insight. i am not a military guy but i will say when an american soldier volunteers, he fights for a cause or principle for a set of values, he fights for his nation. he or she fights for their nation. if the job is just a job then it doesn't turn out the same way. and if it's difficult to get an iraqi army, if you don't feel you are fighting for the total

>> not only baghdad left us, baghdad betrayed us. therefore we are working on two paths.help the political process in baghdad. if there were any hope for it to succeed, otherwise we have to go our own way for the people of kurdistan to determine that. we hope that the u.s. administration understands our position, looks at kurdistan for what it stands for. we have been the most loyal and faithful friend and ally of the united states. we stand for the same values that you stand for -- freedom, democracy, human rights, women's rights. we are proud of our history. >> warner: is there anything at this point that could keep kurdistan within iraq? >> well, there is no hope for us. we don't want to stay with baghdad that has failed. we are not ready to repeat jÑi baghdad does not accept us. baghdad does not want us as partners. baghdad doesn't want to share the power and wealth. and there's nothing in it for us. >> warner: how has this message that you've already conveyed publicly and privately gone over with the obama administration? >> not very positively. we hoped there would

and baghdad seems unwillingly to equitably export the oil resources. how can we help the iraqi government to better manage its energy resources and preserve a federal system that works for all iraqis? right now that seems to be collapsing and the collapse is over and the oil revenue issue, how can we play a bigger role? >> well, this is something where we can play a direct role and it's one reason we had to get through the election and start to get a new government formed so we can get some traction. the numbers tell a story. the kurds need about $14 billion in order to sustain themselves. their own exports right now, they approach a little less than half of that probably. that will change over the future. the budget that is pending in baghdad before the parliament is a $144 billion budget. the kurdish shared that would be a little more than $17 billion. the numbers tell the story for how we can work out a deal. again, there are new realities on the ground that we have to deal with. but it is in the interest of all iraqis to export as much oil as possi

security forces around baghdad and particularly north of baghdad, i described this in my written testimony, are trying to do some things to fight back. they have taken a thousand casualties in the last month. these units, we have relationships with, are fighting, they're capable. and those are the types of units that we're looking at ways to further assist. but, again, this is all being discussed by the national security team as we -- >> you have influences here. my understanding is assad has been part of bombing isis in iraq. of course, you have iran here. how is that going to complicate or instruct what you might be willing to do? >> it is part of the overall assessment and i can just speak for my own firsthand experience in the initial days of this crisis as isil it looked like was moving down the tigris valley and our information was very sketchy and there was a bit of a panic throughout the iraqi security forces and we had to bolster them and try to create a circuit breaker so that that advance halted. there was a security vacuum it that there is no question that our strategic competi

there has been a surprise in baghdad. i spoke to sunni politicians who are wondering what nouri al-maliki are talking about. none of the groups, the sunni rebels or the islamic state admitted to having forces within erbil or kurdish territories, saying "we are not there." i have spoken to western diplomats and one said something stark, saying "we are as surprised that he wept that far. s" this statement is seen as a thinly veiled threat to kurdistan. saying that kurdistan, and iraq must remain together to fight the threat. everybody within the kurdish territories, within the political scene in the kurdish territories is looking at the statement as (a) surprising and (b) as a threat to what they want, which is a referendum for independence. >> thank you imran khan in baghdad. >> coming up here on the programme... >> do you still maintainour innocence? >> absolutely. >>> sentenced to 10 years, the former mayor who took bribes to rebuild new orleans after hurricane katrina. >> how the industry wants help from the indian gove

troops at the baghdad airport. for whatever reason now -- >> two weeks ago, we ordered those 100 airport security personnel into the region, we kept them outside of iraq emma but we ordered them into the reason toause we had be concerned about the security of our facilities and our people at the airport. the situation has changed on the ground. it is not static. it's different every day. isis continues to pose a religion a threat -- a legitimate threat to baghdad. -- we watching this continue to watch the situation and we are monitoring it as best we can. we will have better information in a couple of weeks when we get these reports back. thatn you confirm a report russian pilots have been flying jets -- should we be concerned about russian forces operating aircraft over u.s. forces operating on the ground? it is myt confirm -- understanding that these aircraft were purchased for use by iraqi pilots. you would have to talk to moscow about what they're doing with airplanes and their pilots. concerns, i will go back

embassy officials in baghdad sided with black water over the dispute and the state department agents were ordered to leave the country because their probe disrupted the embassies relationship with the hired mercenaries the revealing story was written by two time pulitzer prize winning american journalist and author james risin a man who the obama administration has been optically attempting to imprison for refusing to reveal his sources you see this is the type of story the white house does not want disclosed to the public and based on the boring headline critics believe that the new york times considered a friend of the obama administration wasn't too eager to publicize the amazing school. i story that shows just how much power blackwater wielded in iraq and the culture of impunity it operated in marina port nine r.t. new york. intimidated us state department agent described his view of blackwater at the time he said they believed they were above the law and actually run the place until war activist eugene pierre thinks the first man is to become the government's master these contra

>>> a step towards the break up of iraq as the kurdish leader pushes for a vote on a break from baghdad. >>> hello, you're watching al jazeera live from doha. also ahead... >> i unequivocally condemn the murder of a palestinian youth. >> israel's prime minister denounces the suspected revenge killing of a palestinian teenager. >> and a british take on a french classic. the tour de france is about to begin in the north of england. >>> iraq's kurds are one step closer to full independence as their president asked parliament to prepare for a referendum on their fired. he has infuriated the iraqi prime minister who has loft support from the kurd and other major groups as well. we'll go live to iraq. but first a report from erbil. >> reporter: this man came to parliament to deliver an important message. the president of the iraq kurdish regional government said it was time for kurds to take a step closer to achieving self determination. instructing them to make preparations for a referendum on iraq. >> translation: we are the only ones who decide our destiny. without a doubt, we have many al

gunmen have killed at least 27 women in an east baghdad apartment block.the killers left messages in the apartments where the women were found saying the deaths were punishment for practicing prostitution. >>> let's return to our top story and the conflict in gaza. israel says its air campaign is targetintargeting hamas fighterd other armed groups of course but family members are paying the price, al jazerra's nick schifrin met one man who survived an air strike which killed most of his family. >> the bomb landed between these two houses rights here, huh? >> reporter: for 20-year-old, all that matters about the attack is that he survived and his family didn't. >> translator: all of them were killed and many other injured. by a lot of shrapnel. >> reporter: on a hot night after a power cut he sat here with his parents, his uncle, his grandmother and his brothers, about 11:30 p.m. the heat spiked and the sound was like a thousand thunder claps. >> translator: the sound was very strong. my sister wasn't killed by shrapnel but because of the force of the explo

citizens from the radical extremists advancing on baghdad the hardest declared an islamic caliphate in the northeast of the country on a moving towards the capital and going violence has spurred up the divisions in society with iraqi kurdistan in the north pushing for independence the region's deputy pm is already urged the central government to move some power to the regions threatening the kurds will break away from baghdad's rule if that doesn't happen but as artie's political reports now there are some western companies who could do very well out of the chaos. with iraq on the brink of all out civil war or oil giants such as b.p. and shell pulled workers from oil fields in the south and east of the country earlier this month but north of kirkuk the semi autonomous region of iraqi kurdistan is an oasis of tranquility and smaller british oil companies are reaping the benefits take for example canal energy run by for my b.p. boss tony hayward the company recently started pumping oil from its brand new k r i pipeline which runs from the semi autonomous region of iraqi kurdistan over to

northern approaches to the northern city of baghdad were bolstered. my written testimony sets in detail the critical response. we first made certain that our people would be safe including contractors working on bases outside of baghdad who were evacuated with the help of the iraqi air force. at the embassy, we rebalanced staff to manage the crisis and brought in additional department of defense resources to ensure the security of our facilities. in parallel importantly and at worked to urgently improve our intelligence picture throughout western and north central iraq surging surveillance flights to 50 per day, establishing joint operations centers and deploying forces to assess iraqi units particularly around the capital of baghdad. these intelligence and security initiatives were taken with regional diplomacy led by secretary kerry to better focus attention on the serious threat. we finally sought to stabilize the iraqi political process recognizing it took place at the most vulnerable most in the process, following elections that were held in whic

they have their sights set on baghdad. ist cyst made up of bad outlaws and a hearing i held on this issue last week our witnesses were unanimous in the belief that prime minister maliki just cannot lead iraq out of this crisis. he needs to go. the sooner, the better. the united states should not strengthen maliki's hand for military assistance. that's not the answer. i want to know what the plan is to prevent the vise of isil. mending relations with the saudis would be a good place to start and finally they are still held hostage in iraq. i want to know why we have failed to settle them in third countries including our own while the u.s. has people in liberty have been murdered. i yield back. >> go to brad sherman from california, ranking member. >> we see emerging from beirut and infertile where militias loyal to ethnic or religious groups are more powerful than governments where there is warfare, but even when there is peace it's an unstable peace with militias in real control no matter what the map says by nation states