The company formerly known as Blackwater, now called Xe, has been accused of planning to bribe Iraqi officials. The reported bribery plan took place after the shooting by Blackwater guards in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in September 2007 left 17 civilians dead.

Wall Street and hedge fund “super investment managers” are descending on Baghdad seeking the next up and coming frontier for investors. Northern Growth Partners, a New York based hedge fund will be opening a new IRAQ fund to investors in three weeks.

Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi was freed Tuesday spending nine months in jail for throwing his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during his last visit to Iran. One day later, on Wednesday, in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, a Fallujah man was shot and killed after throwing a shoe at a U.S. army vehicle.

According to Yochi J. Dreazen’s top front-page story “Call for an Afghan Surge” in the September 16th Wall Street Journal, if approval is forthcoming there will be “as many as 40,000 new troops, in addition to 62,000 now” in Afghanistan. Yochi reports:

Remember Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw both of his shoes at now former U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Iraq in December of 2008? He was sentenced to one year, 6 months for each shoe, but it now appears he will get out early.

Manhattan U.S. attorney charges U.S. Army Captain with accepting bribes while stationed in Iraq.

As polls closed Saturday, Iraqi Kurds are hoping the 2009 elections results, expected in two to three days, will help ease tensions with Baghdad over oil and land disputes that threaten the stability in the self-ruled region.

Stephen Colbert is spending this week in Iraq, and he's coming back with a souvenir: a shaved head. Yes, as Colbert, mock GOP pundit that he is, wanted to look like a soldier during his visit, there was only one way, according to the current Commanding General, Ray Odierno, Multi-National Force—Iraq (MNF-I) and President and kibitzer Barack Obama.

In Baghdad, a city of darkness, gyms and health clubs may show the light. In a city riddled by war, divided by ideology and plagued by corruption and extremism, fitness has emerged as a unifying force as near 300 health clubs and gyms operate in Baghdad.

One of the overlooked aspects of Dick Cheney’s speech today was his extensive linking of 9/11 to weapons of mass destruction (including nuclear weapons), Saddam Hussein, and Iraq.

There has been another tragic set of deaths in Iraq. This time, however, it appears to be inflicted by one of our own and on a United States Military Base

NBC News is reporting that at Camp Liberty, the main U.S. military base in Iraq, which is located near the Baghdad International Airport, a yet unnamed serviceman walked into a "stress clinic" in the camp, opened first, killing at least five. Contrary to earlier reports, the soldier did not kill himself but is now in custody.